A Gathering of Skies
by AngelicSilverWolf
Summary: Tsuna has never been what would be defined as 'normal', what with alternate future versions of himself coming back and taking place in his mind. But when the baby hitman shows up, everything goes awry and nothing happens like it should - according to the future hims, anyway. (T for Language and Violence, Gen).
1. Chapter 1: One Day at a Time

**_A/N:_** **Third Story! Cool! I'll answer Guest Reviews at the bottom of each chapter, and account-reviews by PMs, unless you've disabled that feature. Won't usually have A/Ns at the beginning unless it's** ** _super_** **important. Last time this A/N appears, so read carefully!**

 ** _Summary:_** **Tsuna has never been what would be defined as 'normal', what with future versions of him coming back and taking place in his mind. But when the baby hitman shows up, everything goes awry and nothing happens like it should - according to the future hims, anyway. (T for Language and Violence, Gen).**

 ** _Rating:_** **T and most likely won't change.**

 ** _Genres:_** **Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Adventure, Angst, maybe more, I don't know.**

 ** _Warnings:_** **Language, OOCness - probably, SPOILERS for KHR, violence, depression, flashbacks, possible PTSD, angst, mentions of death, warnings are individual per chapter. No yaoi, yuri, shounen ai, shoujo ai, slash, incest (ew), or anything resembling pedophilia. No smut, either.**

 ** _Pairings:_** **Gen. Frienships/mentorships/familiness only.**

 ** _Disclaimer:_** **I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, just this plunnie that wouldn't leave me alone for a month.**

* * *

"Speech"

 _Flashbacks/Other's speaking_

 _'Thoughts'_

 **(#): A/N to explain stuff at the end.**

* * *

 **A Gathering of Skies Chapter 1: One Day at a Time**

 **By: AngelicSilverWolf**

 _'Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.' – Lyndon B. Johnson_

* * *

There is a somewhat humbling silence after a battle, Tsuna thinks. It isn't really a conscious decision to remain silent, but perhaps out of respect for the fallen, and shock from victory, there isn't a real _need_ to say something. Not that there is anyone left for him to talk to.

Post-battle jitters usually make an appearance as soon as safety is registered, as soon as there is knowledge that he won't be struck down for letting down his guard. He sits down gingerly - buckles at the knees, really, because he has been reckless and more than one bullet found its mark - minding his numerous injuries, and contemplates. There...isn't anything left. His famiglia is gone-

 _Empty eyes empty heart please, God, no,_ _ **not his family**_ _-_

has been for a long time now. He has finally tracked down their killers, but to no end besides justice - reassurance that no one else will be harmed by them. But what about _him_? Even those that weren't of the Vongola... aren't around anymore.

 _"Sorry, Tsuna." Brown eyes look up, as soft as ever, in spite of the blood covering their owner's face. "...looks like I won't be able to see this through after all."_ _The man smiles. "I'm glad I got to call you...my little brother."_

There is no rejoicing or jubilation at his single-handed victory. There is only...weariness. Everyone is gone, and he will be too, judging by his wounds. And honestly? He is okay with that. It has been eight long years of being completely alone. He is ready to go on.

The Tenth boss of the Vongola lies down amidst the field of corpses and closes his eyes.

 _I'll see you soon, guys._

…

* * *

 _Flashes of memories_ (but are they really memories?) _, good and bad. Faces pass in and out of his vision. But these people are dead and gone and gone and dead and never ever_ _ **ever coming back-**_

Tsuna sits up. He isn't panting, and he isn't shivering, but the inside of his mouth is bloody from where he has bitten holes in his cheeks and tongue. It's weird, because he normally wakes up at around five in the morning to continue his hunt-

 _bloodpain_ _ **fury**_ _screams-_ Tsuna shudders and cradles his head in his hands. He is supposed to be dead. He'd had a _hole_ in his _side._ He'd been shot multiple times, in the right leg and his left arm. Why is he breathing? Then, he decides to actually look around - and gets a splitting headache for his efforts.

No...he shouldn't be dead. He is Sawada Tsunayoshi, thirteen year-old outcast, not the leader of a Mafia group - or the remains of one. He curls up into a tight ball and bites back a groan. Shivering uncontrollably, he recites a few pieces of dialogue from a video game, ignoring the Others that ruthlessly twist his thoughts and bitterly hiss things at him. There are so _many_ of them. They don't like his moments of weakness - most of them. ( _The Decimo shouldn't be so weak_ , they say sternly. _You will die and take your Famiglia with you._ ) There are a few that just don't care anymore, but there is one that seems decent enough. He, at least, doesn't cause immeasurably painful headaches. Perhaps this is because he died before his family instead of the other way around. ( _As we should have done_ , the Others say bitterly.)

 _'Damn, another one_ ,' he thinks wearily. And this one is another who is probably going to be more of a negative influence, seeing as he gives off a sense of being so very _done_. But this isn't Tsuna, not really. Even though he _remembers_ hearing gunshots, remembers the excruciating pain of being shot twice in the leg, even if it was dulled by adrenaline and his flames, and remembers with heartbreaking clarity the feeling of just...giving up. The latter is probably the worst, and he always strives to keep it from affecting him, but it doesn't always work.

Ever since the age of five, he has had future versions of himself from other dimensions come back and take up living in his head. It's like having multiple personalities, except that these are actual people who lived at some time or another, and who can't take over his body without his say-so, or unless he is unprepared and lets the memories overwhelm him (he may or may not have PTSD, he isn't sure). He hasn't yet figured out how to help them...move on, so he now has many Others - as he calls them - taking up space in his mind.

Sometimes he just wonders, ' _Why me?'_

The Others either laugh at his rhetorical (except they aren't always, he often actually wants answers) questions, or they whisper harsh and completely unhelpful things to him. ( _Grow up_ , they tell him firmly.) They aren't always so negative, even if they tend to stay on the cynical side of things, sometimes they are something close to content. Those days are few and far between, unfortunately.

Tsuna has surmised that he only gets these...extra presences, because they were the ones with regrets or things they want to redo badly enough to come join _him_. Lucky him (note the sarcasm). He supposes that he hasn't gotten anyone more...cheerful because _those_ versions of him hadn't wanted to come back. He carefully uncurls from his ball, wincing at the stiffness in his limbs. He tiptoes down the stairs of his house ( _burning, ruined, destroyed,_ they whisper mournfully) and he not so kindly tells the voices in his head to _shut it_. It's hard enough to function without constantly being questioned about everything.

He goes out to the front porch and tries not to scream in frustration and sadness, because the newest addition is - had been - _young_. This latest Other had not even made it to his twenty-fifth birthday before diving down the rabbit-hole and into the Wonderland of Tsuna's messed up mind, which makes the other Others howl in outrage, and damn it, this _isn't him_. He has no reason to feel so angry, so hurt and _done_. But he does. The newest Other has locked himself away to grieve because Nana Sawada is still alive here, breathing steadily just a few feet away.

Part of him is in disbelief, while the rest wants to go wake her up and never let her go. Tsuna shakes this off. He has school in the morning, and while the Others marginally help him, they are overall somewhat detrimental because of who is _in_ said school. Tsuna tries to keep his other selves calm, he really does.

He talks to them and listens to them rant or break down (it's a novel experience, having to listen to _himself_ break down inside his own mind). And most of them are adequately adjusted (meaning they can function instead of being great metaphorical masses of screwed up emotions and PTSD) to being in his time period and dimension. But when he gets another tenant, it screws all the others up, and the memories really don't help the surges of emotions he gets on a daily basis.

He has taken to automatically attempting to connect with his other selves when they arrive, new and in emotional pain, because as much as they aren't him - not really - they are _parts_ of him - and he has never been truly alone because of them. At the same time, he keeps quiet about their existence.

Not only is it out of self preservation (because he doesn't want to think about what people would do to know the future, or versions of the future, anyway), but it is his burden to carry, and it has been for the last eight years. The first had been the worst, because that was Tsuna's first time dealing with another presence in his head, and it hadn't gone very well. But Tsuna has adapted, and now he houses over a dozen different Others, so he is somewhat used to the process (but not completely, because no one can _fully_ adjust to having so many voices going at once all the time).

One of the older Others urges him to go to bed.

 _You have a big day tomorrow_ , he says with a modicum of gentleness that Tsuna can't be bothered with interpreting at the moment. The brunette doesn't bother asking his meaning, because his Others can be cryptic bastards at times, and they won't give up information unless absolutely necessary. Yeah, he has their memories, but a dozen lives worth of memories tends to get jumbled up, so he can almost never identify specific dates for what they will be without forewarning. It's probably better that way. At least he won't become a big ball of anticipatory stress.

He gets through the next day half out of it. The newest Other (Tsuna decides to call him Big T. Hardly original, but he has to keep things separate somehow. He's already used Tsuna the First, Tsuna-fish, 10th, and Double O Neo - doesn't make sense and does at the same time - among other names) manages to properly freak out at Yamamoto's appearance, which leads to Tsuna spending his lunch on the roof, wracked with nerves because Hibari is _right there._ Somehow, his Others find his fear of the Disciplinary Committee Leader funny. He fails to see the humor in a tonfa-wielding tsundere (not his words) with well known violent tendencies towards society as a whole.

By the end of the day, he is weary and wary, and just overall ready to fall on his bed and be dead to the world for twelve hours straight. Which, of course, is when the world decides to sucker punch him in the place where it _really_ hurts, because all he gets is an alert from his mom about some tutor named Reborn, and all the voices in his head clamor at the same time about _something_ , and then he hears a squeaky "Ciaossu" in the middle of trying to get the Others to quiet down so he can think for five seconds, and everything goes _Silent_.

It's disorienting. Tsuna hasn't had a moment of complete peace and quiet for the past eight years, which is why it catches him off guard. Maybe, if he had recovered faster, he wouldn't have allowed the Others to overwhelm him with memories and sensations. The instant Tsuna lays eyes on Reborn, the Others all let out a surge of emotion because Reborn means _friendshiplearningcomfortleadership_ _ **family**_ , and Tsuna almost drops to his knees. This doesn't go unnoticed, of course, but he mumbles something about a scam that throws his mother off, and he can only hope that Reborn will think him a weak and pathetic person, instead of suspicious. The newly self-proclaimed tutor studies him, but doesn't say anything. Tsuna isn't one for bragging, but he has developed a kick-ass poker face over the years, stemming from having a bunch of older versions in his head always running their mouths.

It isn't blank or a smile, just an innocent, normal face that one might expect to see on a person who is always tripping over thin air. He sometimes wonders who he's trying to fool into thinking he's normal. Himself? God knows no one else cares enough to ask, except for his mom. He loves his mother more than life itself, and he would probably jump in front of a train for her. Not that he ever shows it, but he isn't selfishly unaware of just how much his mother does for him like most kids are until age forty, even if she is a bit air-headed (and some of this comes from the memories of the Others, something he is eternally grateful for - the ability to appreciate all that his mother does and continues to do for him).

Somehow, the news of him being the next mafia boss isn't all that surprising, though he feebly protests, just because he can (and no one has _asked_ him whether he wants to be one or not, the Others and Reborn just sort of...assume, and he's honestly just so used to it by now that he doesn't say a whole lot).

That night isn't too eventful, and Tsuna thinks that maybe the universe is giving him a brief respite. He actually doesn't have nightmares, but apparently this doesn't change anything, because when Reborn wakes him up with a kick to the side and a mallet to the head, he comes up swinging. Tsuna manages to pass this off as flailing as a result of having had a nightmare about the neighbor's Chihuahua, and the Arcobaleno rolls his eyes.

This thought brings Tsuna up short. Arcobaleno. Arco-freaking-baleno. He shouldn't even know what that is. Or that Reborn is one.

His head hurts already.

The Others helpfully remind him that it is only seven in the morning and therefore entirely too early for this drama shit. He agrees, but argues that he can't do anything about it, and that it's _their_ fault in the first place that he now has a migraine. They huff and sniff, or scoff and growl, but don't deny it.

A smile tugs on his lips, and he wonders if this is what it's like to have brothers. Then, he tells himself that it wouldn't be nearly so intimate, and that he should get up soon because Reborn is getting a dangerous gleam in his eye. The fondness that he feels towards the baby he barely knows (yet knows so well at the same time) is bizarre and not really expected, but Tsuna rolls with it and tries not to let it show, because he has learned nothing if not how to be adaptable.

They meet Kyoko Sasagawa, and romance is the farthest thing from Tsuna's mind at the moment, despite Reborn's not-so-subtle hints.

"You like that girl?" Reborn asks, eyeing him carefully.

"I'd like to be friends with her, if that's what you're asking. But a crush? I barely know her," Tsuna answers. His desire to _get to know someone_ before making _any_ kind of relationship with them stems from memories of betrayals and paranoia from his Others. Reborn says nothing, but Tsuna sees something that looks a bit like surprised approval in his eyes, which makes the Others preen and gives him a warm feeling in his stomach.

Or maybe that's just indigestion; it could be either, honestly.

…

* * *

Tsuna is glaring up at Mochida Kensuke. This _jerk_ had the nerve to try and claim Kyoko as a prize - a prize!

"People aren't things," Tsuna says through gritted teeth, "so don't treat Kyoko-san like some sort of trophy girl and try to _own_ her. She's her own person."

Kyoko is surprised, but grateful, and Reborn is analytical. Mochida sneers.

"Don't tell me what to do, Dame-Tsuna," he says condescendingly. In another world, that would have hurt, would have made Tsuna shrink back.

But this Tsuna has been dealing with far worse than being called 'useless' for the majority of his life, and right now, the Others are either deadly silent or raging at the one who was once a friend of some of them ( _Traitor! We died for/with you!_ they howl).

"I will tell you to _back off_ from Kyoko-san; can't you see you're scaring her?" Tsuna says in a steely voice, reminiscent of some of his Others' 'Boss' tones. This stops Mochida in his tracks, and he looks at Kyoko as if for confirmation, who flinches a little when his intense eyes meet hers. Something changes in Mochida's demeanor, and an emotion akin to _shame_ briefly crosses his face, before he whirls around without another word and walks away. Tsuna breathes a sigh of relief, because from what the Others have been telling him, that could have gone much worse.

He turns and sees Reborn eyeing him contemplatively, and Kyoko looking relieved. He waves aside her gratitude and just says that he was glad he could help her.

"Surprising, Dame-Tsuna," Reborn says. "I will not need to teach you, then, that a boss must defend his allies, even at the potential cost of his own health." The man-turned-baby jumps onto Tsuna's shoulder.

Tsuna smiles crookedly. "I learned a while ago to help out those who need it," he says. Reborn, of course, does not understand his reference to the Others, but all in due time. As it is, the hitman remains contemplative for the rest of the day, shooting him assessing looks, as if he is changing entirely his view and knowledge on his new charge.

This does not really surprise Tsuna; he has been shifting people's opinions of him for longer than he can remember.

Apparently he changes more than one person's view of him, for the next day the volleyball team asks him to help them, saying that anyone who can make Mochida admit his mistakes can surely help a little bit in a school match (and he knew his newfound backbone would bite him in the ass somehow). He tries to argue against this logic by claiming that there _is_ none to be had, but they wave it off. Standing up to someone is one thing, playing sports is another. Still, his Others are insisting on his participation in the game, and so against all logic and reason, he accepts and silently wonders what life is coming to.

The next day, he stares at the crowds of people eagerly awaiting the game and almost backs out, runs away. The Others kindly remind him that bosses always keep their word, prodding him to get it over with ( _It won't be too bad_ , they urge). With a sigh, he steps forward to meet his temporary teammates. They clearly expect great things from him, which doesn't make him feel better.

The first half is nothing short of an unmitigated disaster. He misses shots left and right, and he can tell that his teammates are starting to realize that just maybe; he had been telling the truth about his non-existent athletic abilities. But, he won't insult their efforts by doing anything less than his best, and maybe they realize this, that he's trying just as hard as they are, even if it's a bit useless. He has just enough time to regret his worthlessness, and then it happens.

The gun goes off and his Others let loose a thrum of _excitement_ , and then everything sort of fades away in a single minded determination, not to win, but to help his _teammates._

"I will aid my comrades with a Dying Will!"

…

* * *

"What the hell was that?" Tsuna demands. He is standing in front of his tutor in only his boxers, having just helped his teammates win the game with a thirty point lead.

"A Dying Will bullet," the baby says with a smirk. Tsuna now thinks that he looks far less innocent and harmless, what with what he just pulled.

"That tells me nothing," Tsuna deadpans. His Others are clamoring for his attention, each eager to share about experiences with this bullet, ready to show him in a series of memories. _Later,_ he tells them firmly. If he goes in without an explanation, it will only confuse him more. Even the more taciturn ones are willing to tell about the importance of what just happened.

So, he learns of the Dying Will and the bullets, and the fact that he _could have died_ if he hadn't regretted anything. This...is a little unacceptable, and not because he's afraid of dying. He refuses to leave his mother alone, as some glorified _trophy wife_ while waiting for That Man to return from his 'oil-mining job' (Tsuna knew that was bullshit years ago). He does not like to think about the consequences of him not having regrets.

"What would have happened if I hadn't had regrets, besides the obvious," Tsuna asks in a forced calm. Reborn shrugs, as if he couldn't possibly know or care. And he doesn't, Tsuna realizes. This Reborn isn't the one that his Others know, the one that cares for Tsuna's safety beyond that of a mission. This Reborn won't feel anything besides perhaps disappointment if he dies. **(1)**.

So, Tsuna grits his teeth, says something about a headache that isn't entirely false, and walks away. The Others have only gotten louder, and the headache is swiftly becoming a reality. To get the memories out of the way (because he doesn't _want_ to see how Reborn _should_ be, will be in the future, but isn't yet because it'll hurt a lot to know that someone who is supposed to be one of his closest friends only sees him in a professional and distant light).

He ends up beneath a tree in a park, which he braces himself against while trying not to scream. Then, the memories come flooding in, because the Others can apparently no longer hold them back. It goes a little like this: meetings and greetings, development of friendship and tortuous tutoring hours, promotion to boss after dozens of battles against people he doesn't recognize, and then the inevitable fall or death, and then rinse and repeat. Circumstances are different in each set of memories, but the ends are always full of despair and hurt and violence, ending with one question: _why_? Why did everyone die? Why was he left alone? Why didn't he save everyone? Why was he still alive when everything worth living for was gone? Just...why?

He comes back to himself with tears streaming down his face, his throat so tight he can barely breathe, and an ache in his heart that won't go away. His Others are mourning too, and damn it, he was supposed to have fixed this by now. But, he knows somewhere in the back of his mind, that it'll take a hell of a lot more than him talking to them to fix all of that. Then, he realizes that someone is talking to him, and the voice sounds terrifyingly familiar.

"Herbivore."

He slowly looks up and sees Kyoya freaking Hibari looking at him with an unreadable expression on his face. This causes more tears to come out as the Others take one look and give pain-filled noises. Thoroughly embarrassed, but not really in the position or state of mind to do something about it, Tsuna scrubs his face clean of tears and shakily stands up.

"S-sorry," he says. "I'll just...go." He walks away, feeling Hibari's gaze bore into the back of his head.

At home, he skips dinner in favor of being tired and too emotionally drained to be in the presence of people that his Others think should be dead. He lies down and sighs. He'll deal with the next day and sort through the memories given to him later. For now he just wants rest. Tsuna will manage though, by pushing through each day, one at a time.

He always has.

* * *

 **(1): Hm, yeah, that's a bit of the vibe I got from Reborn at first, but whatever.**

* * *

 **A/N: New story! First KHR story, and honestly? I haven't made it entirely through the series yet, but I wanted to do a non-generic time travel, so this is what happened. I live to make stories in ways other people haven't thought to yet, at least I think this is pretty original, so yeah. Don't know how often this will update, will let you know later. Please Review and tell me how I did!**


	2. Chapter 2: A Stormy Arrival

_**Summary:**_ **Tsuna has never been what would be defined as 'normal', what with future versions of him coming back and taking place in his mind. But when the baby hitman shows up, everything goes awry and nothing happens like it should - according to the future hims, anyway. (T for Language and Violence, Gen).**

 _ **Rating:**_ **T and most likely won't change.**

 _ **Genres:**_ **Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Adventure, Angst, maybe more, I don't know.**

 _ **Warnings:**_ **Language, OOCness - probably, SPOILERS for KHR, mild violence, depression, flashbacks, possible PTSD, angst, mentions of death, bullying, nightmares, non-canon stuff. No yaoi, yuri, shounen ai, shoujo ai, slash, incest (ha nope), or anything resembling pedophilia. No smut, either.**

 _ **Pairings:**_ **Gen. Frienships/mentorships/familiness only.**

"Speech"

 _Flashbacks/Other's speaking/Dreams_

' _Thoughts'_

 **(#): A/N to explain stuff at the end.**

* * *

 **A Gathering of Skies Chapter 2: A Stormy Arrival**

 **By: AngelicSilverWolf  
** _'By chance we met, by choice we become friend.' - Millie Huang_

* * *

Five year-old Tsuna is relatively simple in his wants and needs. He needs food, sleep and his Mama. That's it. He _wants_ some friends, but that won't be happening any time soon, so he sticks with asking for material items like crayons or toy cars. He doesn't want money or power or any of the ridiculously complicated things that adults seem to desire.

He lives a nice quiet life with his Mama in their two-story house in the town of Namimori, where the most interesting thing is the news of a quickly rising-in-power five year-old boy that is taking over the disciplinary decisions of the entire town (incidentally, the term 'bite to death' becomes a very effective criminal and delinquent dissuader). Tsuna's father isn't in the picture almost at all, except for the visit the previous month that Tsuna doesn't remember too fondly since that was also the visit where his father allowed his grandfather to do something to make Tsuna function worse.

All in all, his life is uncomplicated and relatively easy, and he likes it that way. And then, the Other arrives.

Tsuna is sitting in the backyard, making pretend crash and car noises with his fire truck and small car as children are wont to do, when he gets a splitting headache and his view shifts as memories that aren't his pour into his brain, and he is filled with enormous amounts of confusion, fear, grief and _anger_ -

 _He is thirty-five, going on a hundred, when he gets the news that his Lightning has fallen, and damn it, Lambo should have been_ _ **safe**_ _-_

No, he is a five year-old with too many emotions and he is gasping on his hands and knees in the front yard with no one to see him-

 _His flames dance and burn when he alone storms the Millefiore family, they have taken everything from him so it's only fair that he does the same to them, revenge for the fallen Vongola-_

His mother has finally taken notice and she is asking, babbling, but he can't answer even though he wishes he could (but how could he answer when he doesn't know anything himself?)-

 _He is thirty-eight, and he is dying and alone. The only consoling thing is that he will at least see his family again so that he can tell them how_ _ **sorry**_ _he is-_

And Tsuna's world goes black.

He comes to with a roaring headache and the profound experience of sharing mental space with another living being. His Mama's reappearance nearly sets him off again, but the Other seems to realize this would be bad. At least the Other didn't have a dead Nana in his dimension (new word there that Tsuna shouldn't know), just a missing one. Tsuna passes it off as having dozed off, and then having had a nightmare about someone scary he had seen before.

While his five year-old self is not incredibly skilled in the way of lying and diverting, his Other's memories manage to make it passable. This does not make him feel any less guilty when Nana's face clears and she scolds him in a relieved tone. He promises to take better care of himself and to not worry her again, along with a few apologies that are quite sincere, and she leaves him to rest. Tsuna then turns to talk to this new being that has taken up residence in his mind.

What follows is a garbled and unclear explanation of who this Other is (and doesn't that just blow Tsuna's mind?) as well as a maelstrom of emotions that makes Tsuna dizzy. It is probably a good thing that the Other is so good at tucking his emotions away for later, since breaking the younger version of himself wouldn't be good in the slightest.

Tsuna hopes he doesn't get permanent mental damage from this. The five year-old comes up with a name for this Other so that he doesn't have to keep calling him 'Old dude' in his head. What he uses is hardly better (Yoshi ojii-san), but it will do for now. It takes them about two months for Yoshi ojii-san to stop freaking out at every little detail that Tsuna takes for granted, and for Tsuna to stop crying, passing out, or zoning out whenever his Other does said freaking out. They get into a routine.

Whenever Yoshi ojii-san starts to get tense, Tsuna does his very best to make himself absent and away from whatever is causing the reaction, usually disappearing to a tree or a convenient closet - or his room.

Thankfully, the Other stops feeling panicked around Tsuna's Mama, so the five year-old can stop avoiding her. In turn, the Other helps Tsuna out with school and physical shape. Tsuna takes to practicing katas, like the 'cool TV people', or so he tells his Mama. Tsuna also manages to become a little more responsible in his mother's eyes, for he takes charge of keeping his room clean and clutter free. Coincidentally, doing menial tasks like folding clothes or picking up trash helps calm down Yoshi ojii-san. It's a simple system, and it works. Mostly.

There are still nights when Tsuna wakes up to nightmares about memories that aren't his, and while his Other apologises, both of them realize that they can't do much about the fact that Tsuna has seen and experienced Yoshi ojii-san's life and eventual bloody end in flashes, and so therefore will never be innocent again. There are also times when Tsuna doesn't get out of view of the triggers of his Other, which causes horrendous amounts of painful headaches and blank staring as memory after memory plays before his unseeing eyes.

Still, life isn't _too_ awful, because Yoshi ojii-san is pretty damn (swear words at five!) funny and witty, and nothing at all like the timid boy that Tsuna occasionally sees in the memories passed to him **(1)**. So, when the _second_ Other arrived on the night of his sixth birthday, he could only think one thing;

' _Aw hell_.'

…

* * *

 _ **Present…**_

Tsuna adjusts to having Reborn in his life with all the grace that a newborn lamb on crack does to walking, which is to say not very gracefully at all. While disturbingly used to the sudden and violent un-snoozable alarm that is his tiny tutor, everything else is something that needs to be mentally sorted through and placed into boxes for the 'Not to Freak Out At' side of his mind. He _should_ be almost done with getting used to the changes that Reborn brings, but somehow his Others just don't get the memo that Tsuna needs some order in his life to function, so they adjust at the pace of a snail.

Not. Cool.

There is also the fact that Reborn apparently can't be consistent to save his life. Whether it's the going between the cute baby that Nana sees to the frankly terrifying Spartan tutor that is the first thing Tsuna sees when he wakes up, or Reborn's annoying habit of making everything in Tsuna's life his business to not caring at all if Tsuna has some trouble with bullies, Reborn is chaos personified, and Tsuna can't help but wonder how this is his life.

Fortunately, his Others aren't completely useless, for they give him little hints on how to be a Mafia boss and what to do and say - but the nightmares they give him are still a major pain in the ass. Reborn hasn't noticed, or if he has, he hasn't said anything, about the ridiculously frequent night terrors that Tsuna gets.

It's to the point where he has more consistent weeks _with_ them than without, but it's been off and on like that for a few of years, some years are better than others. They're about anything from getting tortured to death to seeing the world go down in flames while a man with white hair and marshmallows laughs in the background, to dreaming about checkers of all things. Not fun, to say the least.

Reborn _does_ notice how much sleep Tsuna gets, which - to clarify - is not much at all. He sends Tsuna to bed early and wakes him up even earlier, and when Tsuna tries to point out how counterproductive this is, he gets a kick to the chin and a speech about how brats shouldn't question their betters. Ah, well, at least it isn't a Mafia talk. Man, the Vongola should hire Reborn as their promoter, never mind a tutor. Want to know about the Mafia and how it can make life better or worse depending on how smart you are and how good at making coffee you are? Talk to Reborn, he'll answer any questions you have and ones that you don't.

But, thinks Tsuna as he finishes drawing the little fake ad he's made up on the fly in class - complete with a tiny hitman and bubble letters, as well as a few fireworks just for the hell of it - at least Reborn cares. Sort of. It's really just a concern for a target and mission success, but at least its there.

"Pay attention, class!" the teacher calls out suddenly, startling Tsuna into giving Reborn a slanted unibrow. Whoops. Sorry, Reborn. Hopefully he won't see it and then Tsuna won't-eh, who is he kidding, of _course_ Reborn will see it. His legs ache from the anticipation of the training to come.

"We have a new transfer student who was studying overseas in Italy. This is Gokudera Hayato." And suddenly, the ad doesn't matter anymore, and Tsuna once again has a headache. This has been occurring far too often lately for his liking.

His Others are clamoring and yelling, shouting, whispering, crying, sobbing, and it is _entirely_ too much because Tsuna can't make heads or tails of why the hell this affecting them so much. He'll get to it later, but right now, he is really so far beyond done. This feeling only increases when the guy his Others are freaking out over comes up to Tsuna and _kicks his desk_. What the actual hell? Fondness and amusement are really the last thing he should be feeling - damn his Others - and so, with a determined set of his head, he ignores the questions and inquisitive looks from his classmates and stands up.

He walks over to the window, bows slightly to his teacher, nods primly at Gokudera, and then proceeds to jump out of the window because there is no way he is going to deal with this. Not today, not this week, if he's lucky, maybe even not ever.

He really isn't lucky.

Not one hour later only proves this theory since he is running around madly trying to dodge the bombs that his future best friend (yes, he registered who Gokudera is, and he's kind of ashamed he didn't recognize his own Storm Guardian, but once again, headaches - for days) is chucking at him. Damn Reborn, damn Gokudera, damn himself for sort of agreeing out of being intimidated by his tutor, and just overall damn the world. Fuck he needs some sleep. At least he has sorted out why exactly Gokudera is so touchy, but it was a little difficult to find the excuse acceptable for the boy who was trying to blow him up for a position that could never be his in the first place.

"Stand still!" Gokudera yells angrily, sending yet another barrage of dynamite his direction.

"And let you hit me?" Tsuna squeaks over his shoulder. And Reborn just watches through it all, traitor. "You must be out of your damn mind!"

This only serves to make his eventual - if he doesn't get Tsuna killed first - Storm Guardian angrier, and out comes another wave of explosives. "Hibari is going to _murder_ me and then follow me to the afterlife," Tsuna groans, wincing as more craters form in the school ground cement.

His Others only laugh - assholes. This is a literal life or death situation, and they are just sitting back and laughing. Smokin' Bomb indeed. Should be freaking Walking Arsenal.

He skids to a stop at the dead end between two sections of the school building and blinks stupidly for a few seconds. There is the telltale click of a gun, and he has just enough time to summon a regret before pain hits his head and there is _energy_. The next few moments are a bit of a blur, to be honest, but he comes out of his momentary high, and Gokudera is looking at him in amazement and resentment. This boils over into a stupid decision that leaves the boy surrounded by his own dynamite, and _how the fuck is this his life right now?_

Tsuna is a person who genuinely tries to do good, so he rushes forward and tackles moron away from danger, only moving when all of the dynamite have exploded, leaving both of them fairly unharmed for having been close to what was most likely an illegal amount of bombs. The next two minutes are equally surreal and jaw dropping as Gokudera goes into a mafia-be-damned kowtow, and proclaims himself a ready and willing servant.

Tsuna is so-ho done with today.

Reborn, the smug little jerk, comes forward and explains the policy of mafia and winners and losers and servants, and honestly? Fuck that. Tsuna doesn't say that in so many words, but the meaning is pretty much the same.

"Look, uh, Gokudera?" He's pretending to hesitate here, he knows this boy better than he knows himself because his Others have chosen this wonderful moment to share memories with him (and he really needs to work with them on _timing_. Tsuna having a terrible day because of hours of confusion, frustration and headaches? _Not a good time_ ).

"I don't need a subordinate or a right hand man, honestly. It would be a lot to handle and I'm thirteen - what teenager wants an eternal servant?" Tsuna says frankly, rubbing his forehead in vain hopes of staving off the wave of headaches and memories that are incoming. The look his gets for this statement makes him feel guilty for all of two seconds as he continues, "But...I would appreciate having a friend. You'd be my first one...ever, actually." At least in this lifetime.

And isn't that sad. This hard working person wants to serve _him_ , useless, slowly cracking, and entrance to a terrible life and dozens of potentially violent deaths Tsuna, who has never had a friend before in his life. His Others don't count really, he doesn't know what they are but they aren't friends, just something unexplainable. Gokudera gives him a shiny-eyed expression of disbelief.

"M-me?" he stammers. "Jyuudaime, you want _me_ to be a-a friend?"

So maybe Tsuna isn't the only one with a mile-long list of insecurities. He musters a sincere smile. "Yeah. And we could start by you calling me by name," he says gently. He keeps from flinching as Gokudera slams his head against the ground in a deeply submissive bow.

"You honor me beyond words, Jyuudaime! I-I am not worthy of calling you by name!" he exclaims passionately. Tsuna sighs. So - wait for it - done.

"I'm not comfortable with being referred to as a boss all the time, Hayato - can I call you that? So, just...Tsuna is fine," he says.

A long, _long_ talk about proper addresses for friends later and Tsuna is showing Hayato his home.

"Eh? Tsu-kun has a friend?" Nana asks in amazement. Tsuna wishes she wouldn't sound so incredulous, but then again, he doesn't really blame her. She has thirteen years to back up her surprise after all. It is a little humorous to watch Hayato flail as Nana dances around him, positively squealing in delight.

"My, you're so handsome! Good job, Tsu-kun!" Nana praises, either not noticing or uncaring of the fact that Hayato's face is alarmingly red (Tsuna bets on the latter, his mother is _devious_ , and he wouldn't let anyone tell him differently). Tsuna takes pity on his newly established friend and manages to extract him from his mother's grasp with a promise of snacks and many study sessions to come.

In Tsuna's room, Tsuna bustles about to get homework and textbooks together while Hayato pulls himself together.

"Your mother is very nice, Jyu-Tsuna-kun," Hayato coughs eventually, more pink now than red. Yes, Tsuna has managed to get his friend to call him an actual name, even if it's with an honorific. A big improvement from 'Tenth' in his honest opinion.

"Yeah, she is." Tsuna nods. Without another word, they begin, leaving Tsuna to wonder absently where Reborn has got to. This flies out of his mind as his Others remind him that he doesn't really have the brain capabilities to not pay attention to whatever Hayato has been saying for the past two minutes. As it turns out, Tsuna's new friend is _really_ smart. Like, genius smart. When he voices this aloud, Hayato goes red again. A shame, really, he has just gotten his complexion to be faintly pink, and now Tsuna just undid all of his hard work.

The rest of the day passes into night with studying easier and more enjoyable than Tsuna has experienced ever. Hayato is a godsend, patient like a saint and smarter than one too. He certainly beats Reborn's methods of tutoring. Gokudera goes home late that night, high in spirit.

It's good that he does, since Tsuna has a horrifying nightmare that night.

It starts out violently right away, a memory of a war one of his Others fought in.

 _He is commanding his famiglia, trying to keep the number of casualties as low as possible, but their Intel was wrong, it is a trap. Their forces are halved within the hour, and the leftovers struggle to formulate a plan, not for a victory, but for survival. There is no victory from this. The battle wages before his eyes, tinted in an orange haze with a hint of desperation._

 _They make it, lose a third of their remaining forces in the process, but the time to mourn is later because they're alive, and relieved green eyes meet his own-_

 _Bang!_

"GOKUDERA!"

The hoarse scream is torn from his throat as he bolts upright. Stinging in his eyes and choked sounds let him know that he's crying and sobbing and coughing because he hurts and that horrible dull ache in his heart just won't go away. His Others are either trying to calm him down and shut him up, or are joining him in becoming hysterical messes.

He's such a fucking mess.

He doesn't know or care if Reborn is in the room and watching him break down from beneath his stupid sleeping cap. He hasn't had a nightmare so bad since the baby came, a couple weeks ago. If this is how he is going to react every time someone from his future/past makes an entrance into his life, he's very tempted to screw it and move somewhere else with his Mom. Not Italy, because Vongola is pretty much everywhere and that's the literal worst place to move to escape becoming part of the mafia, but maybe North America.

In order to stop fantasizing (or maybe it's really worth considering - his tightly wound sanity is at stake after all) and to calm down so that he doesn't become completely overwhelmed, he goes unsteadily to the bathroom to clean up and to soothe his throbbing throat, puzzled green eyes and red blooming on a dirty white shirt flashing continuously before his eyes. After scrubbing his face clean of tears, he makes his way back into his room and flops down on his bed. He doesn't want to go back to sleep, so what can he do-

"Dame-Tsuna. Care to explain that scene just now?"

And dammit. Of course Reborn has to have seen that. Tsuna opens one eye to see his tutor standing in the doorway to his bedroom, fully dressed, and looking for all the world like he's just been...pushed. Had...had Tsuna accidentally moved him aside in his haste to get to the bathroom? Oh, he is _so_ dead.

"N-not really?" Tsuna tries. He doesn't feel like it, but he knows he'll probably break if the hitman pushes. He's never been able to deceive Reborn.

"Too bad. Sit up properly and explain why I just witnessed you having a near panic attack," the Arcobaleno says in a tone that brooks no argument. Well. Tsuna's a little screwed. Something plausible, believable, and not too far from the truth…

"I sometimes get nightmares," he blurts out. Though, he's stretching the truth already, because it's more like he 'often' gets nightmares. "I, uh, they started when I was really young, and they've gotten more common. They're usually violent and bloody."

"What are they about?" Reborn's thoughts are anyone's guess.

"D-different things," Tsuna mumbles, a stray hiccup making him stutter. He hurries to elaborate as his tutor's eyebrow dances dangerously. "I mean, they can be about anything from me becoming Decimo to-to war. And, they aren't always the same even if they're on the same subject."

"Explain," Reborn orders sharply. He looks unnerved, which is what Tsuna wanted to avoid, but it's better than angry or, god forbid, frustrated. A frustrated Reborn is a hellish, demonic, and _scary_ _as fuck_ Reborn.

"Well, for instance, I've dreamed about-about these eight people that I don't recognize. Their faces are always hidden and they never speak, but I always see them together, fighting someone or something. B-but each time, the end result changes. Sometimes they all die, or they all get their differently colored flames stolen and they become...different, and it's never good."

This is true, at least. He tends to get memories of the failure to break the Arcobaleno curse, and whether they fall to the Millefiori before getting a chance to even try and help themselves, or whether they become adults and then die to that damn famiglia anyway, or whether they just die violent horrible deaths, the attempts to get then back into their original fail, one hundred percent. Reborn's expression is blank, but his eyes are piercing - so maybe not the best idea to bring up the Arcobaleno? Whatever, if his tutor pushes, he'll just tell him the truth, about everything.

But, Reborn doesn't. He looks at Tsuna for a moment, and then says calmly, "Get some sleep. We're going to be busy tomorrow."

And Tsuna...Tsuna can't decide whether he's disappointed or happy that Reborn dropped the subject.

He just decides to be confused - it's not like that's a new emotion for him.

...

* * *

One thing he does wish would be fixed - the bullies. They aren't really dangerous, but they are rather annoying.

Take example A: the dumbass senior that gets his kicks from hurting someone more than three grades lower than him. And he doesn't even have the decency to make his bullying creative. He just goes and does cliché actions, like throwing Tsuna's things to the ground, which is then followed by Tsuna himself. Now, Tsuna has seen at least ten different weak points in the other person's 'fighting stance' in the past five minutes alone, but he considers himself a better person than some lowlife who's only chance at happiness is to kick younger people around. Normally, he would grant that happiness because he's a nice person like that.

Now? Now, he's stressed, _di_ -stressed, and more than a little irritated. Because of this, he doesn't stand down and let him kick him and rough him up like usual. Instead, he gets right back up and channels a terrifying glare at the senior. And just so he'll get the picture, Tsuna says in a frigid voice, "Are you done wasting my time?"

The senior is clearly taken aback at this sudden change in attitude, and he even retreats a couple of steps before catching himself. They have an audience, after all. A small crowd sometimes likes to come and watch Dame-Tsuna get the lights kicked out of him just because they all have sad and empty lives and this is the only entertainment they get. Well, too bad Tsuna doesn't want to deal with that right now.

Gokudera is out with a cold, Reborn was particularly harsh in training that morning, and Tsuna's throat is still healing from that nightmare two days ago. His Others have been incredibly moody, fighting with each other, which means: that's right, more headaches. Joy! Normally, he doesn't get so many head problems, he swears it's a byproduct of Reborn's continued existence in his life.

"Ha, Dame-Tsuna can have a backbone after all," the senior says, trying to gain some nonchalance.

Neither Tsuna nor his Others are in any mood to deal with this, so he doesn't rise to the bait. He just stands firm and levels his glare and makes himself look like he's ready to fight, instead of ready to run. The senior doesn't know what to do. How does he bully someone who doesn't look cowardly and weak, but rather intimidating? It makes him nervous, which turns to anger. Good, Tsuna can use anger.

He's a little pissed off himself, actually.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, you little shit!" the senior shouts furiously. He charges in with a form so sloppy that Tsuna actually takes a little time to be ashamed for him. Then, he calmly steps to the side of the wind milling fists and lets momentum to his work for him. The senior crashes right into the side of the building, and then slumps to the ground with a bloodied nose.

"Anyone else?" Tsuna asks in a deadly calm voice. He would be freaking out any other day, but he just can't deal with this right now, so he shelves it aside for later. He's always been relatively decent at compartmentalizing. He walks away from the silent crowd that parts like the Red Sea as he steps through it. He should be proud, this means that less people will bother him and more will take him seriously.

But the fear and suspicion only makes what would have been triumph turn to ash in his mouth. His Others encourage him to enjoy the acclimatize to being watched warily, to get used to it, but he shakes them off and firmly decides to ignore them for now. He'll deal with the fallout of this encounter later. Now?

He has a sick friend to visit.

* * *

 **(1): Just to clear something up: Tsuna experiences and sees the memories/lives of his Others when they first arrive, and if they give him memories later on, not in nightmares. Also, since he is so young here and will eventually have over a dozen people in his head as stated last chapter, he doesn't remember all of the sordid details, so some things that he may have already seen will come as a surprise to him anyway. He will remember certain details about important memories he has viewed - like Reborn - but don't go expecting him to fix everything.**

 **His Others come from alternate dimensions, which means that things that happened in one dimension didn't necessarily happen in the others, and so on. Because of that, he might not react in a completely logical manner at certain points in the story, or he may do something completely unexpected.**

 **This isn't a fix-it, because he will certainly make mistakes and won't be perfect, and things will go better and/or worse than they did in canon and in other dimensions. Also, Tsuna doesn't always know what his Others are thinking, and vice versa, which is why he can hide things from them. They mentally communicate, sort of like talking, and he can feel strong emotions of theirs, like they can do with him.**

* * *

 **Guest Reviews (Bottom to Top):**

 **Drummer:** **Thanks for the encouragement, and for the review! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.**

 **Blah blah:** **I don't know about perfect, but I thank you anyway. Always grateful for the reviews.**

 **Guest:** **I'm glad this is realistic. It's what I was shooting for, and I'm also glad that I can convey Tsuna's feelings properly. Thanks so much for the review.**

 **Yumi014:** **I'm sorry to hear that you shed tears, but I'm happy that I provoked such a strong reaction with my writing. And I was trying to keep Tsuna in character, but because the original Reborn! was slapstick humor for the first few chapters, it's a bit difficult to make things more serious. And I love cywscross too, and am sad that they haven't updated in forever. Anyway, thanks for the nice review!**

* * *

 **A/N: So, here is chapter 2. I still haven't figured out a schedule for it, but I'm leaning towards once a month. I don't know yet. Thanks so much for the support, I was blown away by the people who liked it. Hope this chapter didn't disappoint, and please leave a review when you finish! See you next time.**


	3. Chapter 3: Get Up - To Get Knocked Down

_**Summary:**_ **Tsuna has never been what would be defined as 'normal', what with future versions of him coming back and taking place in his mind. But when the baby hitman shows up, everything goes awry and nothing happens like it should - according to the future hims, anyway. (T for Language and Violence, Gen).**

 _ **Rating:**_ **T and most likely won't change.**

 _ **Genres:**_ **Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Adventure, Angst, maybe more, I don't know.**

 _ **Warnings:**_ **Language, OOCness, suicide attempt, SPOILERS, non-canon events, teacher-student bullying, mute-character, probable PTSD (does it count if it's another presence in a character?), warnings are individual per chapter. No yaoi, yurri, shounen or shoujo ai, no slash, incest or anything resembling pedophilia. No smut or non-con.**

 _ **Pairings**_ **: Gen, friendships, mentorships.**

Speech"

 _Flashbacks/Other's speaking/Dreams_

' _Thoughts'_

 **(#): A/N to explain stuff at the end.**

* * *

 **A Gathering of Skies Chapter 3: Getting Up – Only to Get Knocked Down Again, Repeatedly.**

 **By: AngelicSilverWolf**

' _Sometimes it felt like her life was a series of falls from ever-greater heights.' – Pretties, Scott Westerfield._

* * *

The arrival of Tsuna's second Other is noticeably different from the first. For one, it's a lot more subtle, and if he hadn't already been aware of what it's like to get another presence in his head, it's likely he wouldn't have noticed for at least a few days. As it is, he does and is therefore able to make contact before anything can set the other him off.

He gives the alternate version of himself the nickname QT for 'Quiet Tsuna' because this newest person is incredibly unobtrusive in just about everything. Not to say that he is rude about the lack of talking with Tsuna and Yoshi ojii-san, he's just really quiet. Tsuna would say he's shy if he didn't recognize the hidden strength in him that Yoshi ojii-san also possesses. And there is the fact that the silence isn't awkward or uncomfortable, just soothing. In face of Yoshi ojii-san's arrival, this is like a godsend.

He really should have remembered that it's always the quiet ones.

It turns out that QT is quiet for one reason only. He's kinda sorta mute.

Take a minute. Process.

' _Come again?'_ Tsuna asks after a pause to restart his brain since it seemed to halt after that piece of information. QT sends out something that feels like a confirmation without actual words, and wow, does this actually make things fall into place. The lack of shyness, the comfort with not having a physical voice. Though, Tsuna is a bit confused about the not having a mental voice part, but figures it's partially psychosomatic and mostly because QT doesn't even know what his own voice sounds like since he's never heard it before.

It's a little depressing, until Tsuna experiences just what his second Other has done in spite of the lack of voice - no, _because_ of it. He watches in awe as QT pours in memories of forcing other people to take him seriously when they underestimate him because of his lack of voice. He witnesses how QT's tutor takes the quiet dignity this man has always had and turns it into something great, something that inspires loyalty from hundreds. It's breathtaking and Tsuna is humbled to be in the presence of such a great person.

The inevitable fall hurts all the more because it, and as QT can't even make hurt noises as he relives the Vongola's fall from grace, starting with a traitor and getting worse from there, Tsuna does so for him, under cover of night and bed sheets. Tsuna can't make the furious helplessness from the declining situation as everything his Other worked so hard for falls apart sting any less, but he can promise that he'll do his best to not let that happen to _his_ famiglia. Even though the thought of taking on such responsibilities terrifies him, he figures he owes it to these two (and everyone who will eventually come into his life) to try his damndest to ensure that what happened to them won't happen to this Vongola.

The companionship they offer him more than makes up for the long, hard path ahead of him.

...

* * *

 **Present:**

"Hayato?" Tsuna looks around the derelict building's hallway. He's pretty sure his friend is the only resident and for good reason. Not only is it sagging alarmingly, but he's seen what might have been a foreclosed sign on the rusted set of double doors - covered in graffiti, of course. He's on the very top floor, having checked the other two already, only to come up one friend short. He wonders absently how such a smart person could think it wise to spend his days in this place.

"Hayato?" he calls again, peering through cracked and worn doors. All of them are falling apart or missing entirely, but only one is chained. He thinks that's a rather large giveaway for a trained assassin to have ( _Naïve, amateur mistake_ , his Others whisper, but he tells them to shush because Hayato is still in middle school and can have some allowances made for his levels of professionalism). He cautiously opens it, not entirely sure his friend isn't paranoid enough not to booby trap it.

Fortunately for the building, it seems Hayato has realized that the last thing it needs is an explosion, so Tsuna makes it through the front door unscathed. He looks around the simple apartment, noting the lack of personal effects and enjoying the simplicity of the one bedroom and tiny kitchen.

He peeks into the bedroom and feels a fond smile tug on his lips. Hayato is passed out on his bed, covers pulled up to his chin, an empty glass and a thermometer on a small TV tray. Tsuna checks his temperature, determines he no longer has a fever if he even had one in the first place, fills the glass with some tap water, and then decides to cook his Storm some breakfast. He doesn't have anything better to do, and he really should practice what his mom has taught him anyway.

Twenty minutes later finds Hayato stumbling out of his room to delicious smells emanating from his kitchen, and lo and behold, there stands his only friend waving around a wooden spoon like he knows how to use it. He must have made a noise in his surprise, for Tsuna whirls around with a big smile on his face. A bright and happy one.

"Hayato!" the brunette says cheerfully. "You're up. Feeling better?"

"Tsuna-kun, what are you doing here?" Hayato asks dumbly. "I-I mean, not that I'm not glad you're here, I just...um. Can I start over?"

Tsuna just laughs and waves him over to the small card table.

"Sit, I'm making breakfast. Do you like eggs? Mama taught me this western style dish, and I've wanted to try it for a while now," he says, picking up the pan he'd been fiddling around with earlier. Well, of course he can't refuse having something his friend/boss offers him.

And so, for the first time in years, Gokudera Hayato has a homemade breakfast. It would have been absolutely wonderful even if it'd been the worst food on earth.

…

* * *

Tsuna feels much better the next day. He got to spend the previous afternoon at Hayato's, getting help on his diabolical homework and waving off compliments about his cooking. It really doesn't compare to his mother's, but it's good to know his efforts in learning haven't been wasted. He arrives at school in high spirits; even Reborn's Spartan tutoring this morning wasn't enough to dampen them to moroseness, and almost immediately runs into the Mochida Kensuke. A scathing glare from him to the latter is forestalled by a memory, nudged into his head by one of his more nostalgic tenants, where the boy in front of him is a man with scars and a friendly gleam in his eyes.

It doesn't take much to put two and two together to get that Mochida is part of the Vongola in this particular memory, proved by the gun at his side and the report he is holding in his hand. So, Tsuna bites back the anger that surges up at the kendo captain and instead walks past him with a curt nod. He can't quite get it out of his head that Mochida is a jerk who messes with others in his spare time, but he won't further alienate him by engaging in aggressive behavior either. And if he gets some satisfaction from the confused glance Mochida sends him as he walks away, well, he isn't perfect.

He slips into Nezu's class with a sneer of derision from the latter. No matter that his grades aren't the lowest in the school anymore, the man still detests him. It would be more disturbing if the feeling isn't entirely mutual. The bell rings and Nezu starts handing back quizzes. He stops by Tsuna's desk with an arrogant and smug gleam in his eye that immediately puts Tsuna on edge.

"Sawada," he says. Tsuna just looks at him. "This is completely hypothetical, but suppose there's a student that scores in the twenties and brings down the class average."

Tsuna frowns. He's sure he did better than that, in spite of what his teacher is poking at.

"According to me who came from an elite school, that kind of person is unnecessary baggage on society," Nezu continues, triumph lacing the smirk on his face. He 'accidentally' allows Tsuna's paper fall into public view, letting the damning red 26 show. Tsuna grits his teeth as the class titters. He _absolutely_ knows that he did better than that, because not only are his Others telling him so ( _Better than us and better than this,_ they say ruefully), but he actually redid some of the problems at home and knows that he should have gotten at least half of them correct. "Should that person be allowed to live?" Nezu asks keenly, and okay. Way the fuck too far, asshole.

"You're right, sensei," Tsuna says with a disarming smile full of teeth. "Such a person wouldn't be a good fit for this class, where the incompetence of the staff would ensure that he never improved. And if he was to improve, that staff might even sabotage his efforts in an effort to make himself look better."

Nezu's face turns red and the mutterings get louder.

"These are bold accusations that have no ground!" Nezu says loudly. Tsuna tilts his head almost thoughtfully as the Others slyly slip in memories of a threat of expulsion and a time capsule with some papers that make everything much clearer about Nezu's attitude towards everything.

"Really?" he asks innocently. "Then, if I were to compare my test to the rest of the class's, it would be exactly the same in both material and grading method? And whoever said it's you I'm talking about?" Nezu twitches slightly, but that's more than enough to signify his guilt to Tsuna and a few others, if the suspicious looks and growing murmurs are any indication. Tsuna absently notes Hayato hanging out by the door with a murderous look on his face and is silently thankful he got control of the situation before his friend could cause trouble. Not that he wouldn't appreciate it, but there is a time where subtlety and words are better than force and volume. Dealing with bastard teachers who treat their students like shit is one of those times, no matter how much Tsuna wants to punch Nezu in the face for all the past students he caused trouble for.

Tsuna stands up, suddenly disgusted with the situation, mentally mourning that it's only first period and he already has to deal with this crap. No wonder Hibari has to beat people up to stay moderately sane.

"Where are you going?" Nezu blusters as he heads for the door. "I'll report you for truancy!" Tsuna just shakes his head. As if.

"I think Hibari-san will be far more interested to learn that one of the staff in his school is a posturing fake that actively hinders the learning of his environment," he says. He won't phrase it like that exactly since Hibari isn't liable to really give a shit, but the prefect doesn't like liars either so Nezu is still screwed. If there's anyone who can prove that Nezu isn't as competent as he claims to be, it's Hibari.

He leaves the classroom with a pale Nezu and a hushed class, telling Hayato not to wait up for him if he isn't back by lunch. He marches straight to the Disciplinary Committee's headquarters with something like indignance welling in his veins. Not so much for himself since he knows most teachers don't like him just as a matter of principle, but for his Others and all those who look back on their middle school years and dislike them because of this one bitter, condescending man. The secretary is appropriately surprised when Dame-Tsuna appears in front of him with a calm but slightly smoldering look.

"I'd like to file a report," he says evenly. Reports are grievances against people in the school reported to the Committee because the adults either can't or won't do anything about those people, that the Committee can choose whether to act against or not. People normally try to solve their own problems first because Hibari bites to death anyone who wastes his time with irrelevant - to him - reports, but seeing as Nezu is a teacher and Tsuna can't exactly go digging up school grounds without good reason and expect no repercussions, this is really his only choice.

The student blinks, but to his credit, rifles around for the piece of paper without question. He directs Tsuna to a nearby chair after handing him a pen. He tells Tsuna to mark the urgency, but advises him not to make it too urgent, just in case. Tsuna just nods and smiles in thanks.

He thinks Hibari might just be interested in this. The prefect can't have lying herbivores in his school since a normal herbivore-filled establishment is bad enough. Accordingly, he marks URGENT and then circles it for good measure. When he hands it back though, he thanks the secretary for the advice but says that it really is that important. The student just sighs like he gets this twenty times a day and doesn't know why he bothers anymore.

Tsuna's satisfaction from what this might bring about gets him through the whispers and stares until gym, where he spectacularly flops through the baseball game. Thank God Hayato doesn't share his gym class. That would have been a mess. He doesn't really blame his teammates for making him sweep the field by himself even if it is something of a dick move. He isn't the only one who got so many strikeouts after all, and anyway, they're just mad because they wanted to impress Yamamoto and show off their rudimentary hand-eye coordination. But, he did cost the game, so he's not overly irritated. Not to mention his Others are being distracting by snickering quietly or radiating that irritating sense of knowing something that he doesn't and are anticipating either his reaction or the event itself, so he knows something's going to happen.

The last time they did this, he got bombs chucked at his face and a best friend, so. He doesn't know whether to feel excited or apprehensive.

Imagine his surprise when Yamamoto Takeshi decides to pitch in and help him out. His Others' sense of anticipation hasn't peaked yet, so he is still on edge when Yamamoto arrives, leading his courteous acceptance to be ever so slightly more edged than usual. It's probably a good thing Yamamoto is so easy going.

"Say, Dame-Tsuna, can I ask you a question?" Yamamoto asks, pausing his cleaning and leaning on his brush handle. Tsuna pushes down the irritation at the name and tries to make himself seem open instead of confused. It helps that his Others are positively thrumming now. "Sorry, it's just, you seem so dependable lately. I can't help it."

"Sur-r-e? I don't know how much help I'll be though," Tsuna says, stopping as well and waiting expectantly.

"It's just, my batting average has been going down lately and if I don't improve soon, this will be the first time I won't start. I don't know what I should do," Yamamoto confesses, scratching his head almost sheepishly. He would be convincing if his shoulders aren't tight and his eyes edging towards desperation. Tsuna pauses and thinks about this. He would normally say to put more effort into it since that seems logical and he really doesn't know anything about sports, but he knows that Yamamoto already trains like a madman, not to mention that his Others don't like that solution at all. Something about breaking limbs.

"Well," Tsuna says slowly, trying to connect the pieces of why it's so important that he gets this right. "I once saw this show with a professional trainer who said that if you work too much and don't take enough breaks, your body can break down. So, maybe you need to go easier for a bit? She said that if you aren't careful, your performance can drop and eventually, you can really hurt yourself."

Yamamoto blinks and becomes pensively silent while Tsuna works on finishing up so that he can get home and hopefully not get shot at because he's late for training. He's just finished and is deciding whether or not to wait for his companion, when Yamamoto grins.

"Hey, that seems reasonable I guess. You know, my arm _has_ been feeling a little sore lately. Ha, ha, it's probably just a case of too much of a good thing, right?" he says, something like relief coloring his tone. Tsuna smiles slightly. He doesn't agree that exercise of any form is a good thing, but each to his own, he supposes.

"Thanks, Dame-Tsuna - I guess I shouldn't call you that. Can I call you Tsuna?" Yamamoto asks. Tsuna sort of gapes at him. The schools teen idol just asked him if he could call him by his first name.

"Uh, yeah. Sure," he says in something close to bewilderment. When did his life start changing so much? It used to be him and his Others against the world minus his mother. Now, he has Hayato, and Kyoko and Hana are friendly towards him, and now even Yamamoto.

"Cool. You can call me Takeshi. It's the least I can do to stop calling you Dame-Tsuna after you helped me," Yamamoto - no - Takeshi says with a contagious grin. Tsuna agrees in something like a daze and they part amiably for the day. He's somehow gotten another friendly acquaintance and his Others are oozing contentment.

So, of course, when things start going right, Life offers him a swift kick in the ass the next day.

…

* * *

It starts off normally enough. Hayato shows up on his doorstep in the morning, gets bullied into eating at least three plates of breakfast by Nana, is horribly respectful to Reborn (really, he's setting unreachable standards for Tsuna, is he trying to make his life harder?), and they walk to school together, meeting up with Kyoko and Hana - the latter who starts snipping at Hayato about two seconds after they meet. He retaliates of course, and it's all business as usual.

And then-

"Yamamoto is gonna jump off the roof!"

Tsuna knows what it's like to be hit by an unexpected force hard enough that it's hard to breath - that's half of the entrances of his Others, after all - and this is like that, only more so. Not only is he stunned beyond belief, but his Others surge as one and release a flood of sensations, memories and emotions (" _Not again!_ " is the general consensus). He pushes them aside and comes back to himself as he's pelting towards the roof, taking the steps three at a time, Hayato scrambling to catch up and calling his name in concern.

Any other day he would wait, but he's deciphered enough memories that he _finally_ understands why the talk with Takeshi yesterday inspired such relief in his Others, and this is _important_. Their mingled desperation and hopes of _please God, not again, not him, please pleaseplease_ -

He bursts onto the roof, breathing heavily in a way that feels more like he's trying not to sob. The crowd of students (and isn't that disgusting, they just sit and watch with their useless platitudes like a crowd of vultures instead of legitimately trying to help) spins around, and even Yamamoto has broken his forlorn expression to look appropriately surprised, broken arm and all straightening briefly. Suddenly, that makes Tsuna's desperation turn to anger.

"Tsuna, what-" Takeshi begins, but Tsuna just marches right over, shoving aside students, and jabs a finger at his future Rain's chest.

"Shut up," he snaps. Yamamoto stops in shock. "What the hell are you _doing_? Committing suicide? Are you out of your Goddamned _mind_?" Takeshi's mouth twists into a bitter smile that makes Tsuna's chest hurt and only incenses him further.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand," Takeshi says, almost gently. "I only have baseball, and now the baseball god has thrown me away like yesterday's trash. And you know, now that I think about it, we have something in common. We don't have much in our lives."

Tsuna can't believe what he's hearing.

"I don't have much?" he repeats incredulously. And he doesn't, really, but he has what counts, and it rankles a bit that Takeshi would try and call him out on something like that. "What are you talking about - I have things." Takeshi's face darkens slightly.

"So even you, Dame-Tsuna, are better than me," he says in a colder tone. Tsuna flinches minutely at the name but shoves it aside because _holy shit this isn't the time for those pesky insecurities_. At the very least his Others are a low murmur. They know how important this is that they won't distract him.

I didn't say that," he says in exasperation. "I just meant - you have things! You have your dad and you friends and your team-" Takeshi is the one to flinch at this, and suddenly Tsuna knows what's happened.

Peer pressure is the single most basic of experiences in school, and Tsuna hates it with a passion. He wants nothing more than to turn around and demand who the _fuck_ thought to get Takeshi to practice more, enough that he broke his arm, but first he has to get his friend off the edge of the roof.

"All right, maybe not your team, but if they're the ones who had you practice enough to break your arm in the first place, then you're probably better off for it anyway. But, my point was that you have lots of things to live for, and it really isn't fair to compare the two of us because we're different," Tsuna says, and then lets out a somewhat hysterical laugh that startles Takeshi. "I mean, you said it yourself, I'm _Dame-Tsuna_! I'm the fuck up that people don't care about - the one person that can get hurt or can die and no one would give a shit. But you, you step onto this edge and everyone cares, everyone comes flying." Even if it isn't for incredibly noble reasons, it still counts. Tsuna could do the same, and they might just shrug and wait for the obituary while gossiping and wondering why it didn't take longer.

"No one needs me," Takeshi says steadily, as if he just entirely ignored Tsuna's whole spiel. Tsuna wants to tear his hair out from stress and frustration.

"Bullshit," he says sharply. "You think you're worthless without baseball? It'll come back! I mean, I don't know your dad, but I'm sure he needs you. Fuck it - _I_ need you!" Takeshi startles at this and eyes him closely.

"You're just saying that."

Tsuna laughs again, wildly, unrestrained in his need to get it through Takeshi's apparently thick head that suicide isn't a fucking option. "Wanna bet?" he challenges. And then, he does the single most reckless and stupidly brave thing he's done ever, and he climbs over the side of the fence and stands next to his surprised friend.

"What are you doing?" Takeshi asks warily. Tsuna shrugs.

"You jump and I follow. Promise," he says simply. He's absently glad that Hayato doesn't seem to be here, though he does wonder where he is, because the other boy would freak if he heard that sentence.

"You're serious," Takeshi says in something close to wonder. " _Why_?"

"I told you, I need you," Tsuna replies. And he does. He's seen enough memories now to know that life without Takeshi wouldn't be good. He'd live, but it wouldn't be the same, it wouldn't be as full of happiness or joy for anyone. And now, he waits. He figures he might survive the fall, he wasn't kidding about following Takeshi if he does indeed jump. And anyway, if he doesn't, well, maybe he can be an Other to some other poor bastard version of himself. Regretful that he couldn't even stop his own Rain guardian from committing suicide.

"Alright." And that one word, quiet and slow as it is, is enough to lift Tsuna's life prospects from real shitty to, hey, this might just work. He turns to find Takeshi smiling tentatively at him. A real smile too, not one of those cracking plastic ones that never fail to make his nerves go on edge. He smiles back, and it's sappy and hopeful and perfect-

And then the fence supporting their weight breaks.

God _damn_ his life right now.

This statement is only reiterated when he hears the telltale sound of a gun going off, and he only has time to hear his Others either sigh in relief or laugh insanely at his misfortune (damn assholes), before he can't think beyond the insane urge to rescue himself and Takeshi and then find the latter's teammates and knock their heads together. Thankfully it doesn't get that far, but the desire remains. It all concludes with Yamamoto and Tsuna lying stunned on the ground while their classmates peer at them from the roof, yelling questions about their well-being.

For some reason, the question about whether they're both dead or not is enough to start Tsuna on giggling hard, because really, what the actual hell is wrong with this school. Takeshi only takes a second to follow suit, and soon enough they're both gasping from laughter - ringed slightly in hysteria, of course - while their increasingly concerned classmates stare down at them. They're only stopped when Hayato, Kyoko, Hana and strangely enough Mochida run up to them. Followed by a large group of students, so Tsuna assumes Hayato was doing crowd control during the roof scene.

Hayato is talking, scowling, and generally acting like an extremely unsettling mother hen - only the tsundere version. Kyoko is alternating between calming Hayato down and checking to make sure Takeshi and Tsuna aren't hurt, scolding them all the while, and Hana and Mochida are shooting each other unfriendly looks and yet are acting together as imposing barriers against the horde of students that followed them.

In between their sniping at each other, Hana shoos students away with biting commentary on their resemblance to a herd of cattle, dumb and stupid with a side of nosy, while Mochida just sneers unpleasantly. Tsuna and Takeshi are fine, and Takeshi's broken arm isn't messed up at all. The day turns better when they go back to class, because all of this happened during lunch and talk about sacrifices, and they find some Disciplinary Committee members escorting a very pale Nezu to a meeting with Hibari.

Tsuna feels an unholy amount of glee when one of the boys lets slip that the prefect is Not Pleased to find out that a staff member is a lying herbivore who infiltrated his school with such poor hacking and cover-up skills. Figures he's mad about the lack of skill and not the mistreatment of students, but whatever gets rid of the man faster. Tsuna feels like this is this last time he'll have to worry about Nezu for a long, long time. Hopeful for the rest of his life. In spite of the fact that Yamamoto looks lighter than ever, all grins and chuckles at Hayato's outraged threats, Tsuna finds himself watching him closely.

He doesn't know what for, but today was too damn close, and a little paranoia never hurt anyone. His Others approve, even if they see it as unnecessary. He argues that they can't guarantee that Takeshi won't go do something else stupid and heart stopping, but they just wave him along good naturedly.

Jerks.

Later, when Takeshi and Tsuna are alone because it's the end of the day and Hana and Kyoko have left and Mochida disappeared a long time ago, and Hayato went to restock on his dynamite since he's been putting it off due to the study sessions as Tsuna's house, Takeshi apologizes. Tsuna doesn't ask why, just assumes that it's for nearly giving him an early death via stress induced heart attack, but Takeshi goes into an unexpected tangent.

"I didn't mean to call you Dame-Tsuna," Yamamoto continues. Tsuna blinks in surprise. That's not even on the radar of things Takeshi could be apologizing for.

"And I was wrong too, when I said you don't have anything. You have Hayato and Hana and Kyoko, and even Mochida. You're definitely not Dame."

"Well...thanks. I wasn't kidding about you having things too, Takeshi," Tsuna tells him. Yamamoto smiles in a content sort of way.

"Yeah, I know. I feel pretty dumb now, giving up like that. My dad'll kill me when he finds out," he says with an embarrassed laugh. Tsuna thinks about what he wants to do with this relationship.

"Wanna come over? For supper, I mean. Mama always likes to meet new people, and I'd be glad to stall your impending doom," he says, thinking privately that his mom's heart might give out from surprise and happiness when she discovers that he now has two best friends. It's only been a week and a half too. He's on a roll that he doesn't want to stop anytime soon.

Yamamoto agrees happily, and they get to Tsuna's house, where his mom does indeed freak out a little when Tsuna introduces Takeshi. After a few minutes of squealing and dancing, Tsuna manages to drag his friend upstairs before he's overwhelmed by the bubbly insanity that is Nana Sawada.

"Wow, your mom's pretty great," Takeshi says as soon as Tsuna shuts his bedroom door, thankfully just looking cheerful and not freaked out. Tsuna hums in agreement and tries to find the controller to his gaming console. Whatever entity out there enables Reborn's non-presence **(1)** , and they spend a good hour beating each other up on a cheesy fighting game with bad graphics and worse music.

It's pretty great, and Tsuna's relaxing and feeling content. And then he feels another presence start to slot into place in his head (a slower one this time, they aren't always, just slow enough for him to recognize what's happening but not be able to do a damn thing about it to prepare) and thinks, _Fuck me_ , and remembers that he can't be happy for too long before things turn around again.

This is why he can't have nice things like friends.

Well, it's certainly one way to get more familiar. He only wishes, as his vision doubles in a familiar way and as he hears Takeshi's voice sharpen in alarm, that he could have _one_ day without the tables being flipped over. Knowing his track record, it's never going to happen.

* * *

 **(1): So, Reborn's been conspicuously absent lately, except for appearances to train or shoot Tsuna, but you'll find out why next chapter. Trust me, it's for good reason. Also, Q.T is the reason for the mute character tag.**

* * *

 **Guest Reviews (Top to Bottom):**

 **Drummer: Thank you, thank you! Sorry it's so late in coming, but I appreciate the review!**

* * *

 **A/N: I'm back! Remember that monthly update? Yeah, no. Sorry, but ain't nobody got time for that. To make up for it sorta, I made this longer than usual, which, considering we're only three chapters in isn't saying much. I don't know if this seems rushed, I hope not I just wanted to get Yamamoto in and he's got a lotta content. But anyway, sorry for the cliffhanger, and I'll try and update faster, but no promises. Remember, please review or PM any questions or concerns. Thanks for the support and stuff, love ya bunches, and see you later!**


	4. Chapter 4: Define 'Lover'

_**Summary:**_ **Tsuna has never been what would be defined as 'normal', what with future versions of him coming back and taking place in his mind. But when the baby hitman shows up, everything goes awry and nothing happens like it should - according to the future hims, anyway. (T for Language and Violence, Gen).**

 _ **Rating:**_ **T and most likely won't change.**

 _ **Genres:**_ **Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Adventure, Angst, maybe more, I don't know.**

 _ **Warnings:**_ **Language, OOCness, SPOILERS, non-canon events, violence, mentions of a violent death, assassination attempt, hinted underage relationship (Bianchi and Reborn - yeah, she's 17** _ **now**_ **, she was at most 16 when she and Reborn were a thing. Age of consent in Japan is 17-18 in many prefectures, not mention that I don't think he's a day under 30. If it was an actual 'lover' definition of a relationship, nice, Reborn, real nice), probable PTSD (does it count if it's another presence in a character?),** **warnings are individual per chapter** **. No yaoi, yuri, shounen or shoujo ai, no slash, incest or anything resembling pedophilia (that isn't already canon, anyway, *cough*Reborn*cough*). No smut or non-con.**

 _ **Pairings**_ **: Gen, friendships, mentorships.**

"Speech"

 _Flashbacks/Other's speaking/Dreams_

' _Thoughts'_

 **(#): A/N to explain stuff at the end.**

* * *

 **A Gathering of Skies Chapter 4: Define 'Lover'...**

 **By: AngelicSilverWolf**

' _Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.' - Charles R. Swindoll_

* * *

Tsuna's third Other is an...experience. Tsuna is seven and a half and has acquainted himself quite well with the two people in his head - though that first joined reaction at seeing Yamamoto Takeshi had been Not Fun to say the least - but the newest addition to the group of consciences in his brain is unique in that it feels the most like _him_. When he arrives, the third Other gets the name of Tsuna the First because just like Tsuna himself, he's awkward, too old (twenty-eight with an added thirty years because of stress), too young and really just incredibly resigned to being the embodiment of Murphy's Law.

Tsuna the First isn't shy, but he also doesn't quite know how to articulate his opinions. This stems from having been born into a world where his father whisked him away to Italy to be trained as a reserve mafia boss in case the other three didn't make it. Tsuna the First spent his life being molded into the perfect boss by Iemitsu and none other than Reborn the Arcobaleno, but he never quite grew the backbone to live up to his full potential.

Much like his ally, the Bucking Horse, Reborn only had to tell him to jump to have him asking, "How high?". Tsuna's first two Others are noticeably less impressed with this behavior, and one exudes Disappointment, the other Disapproval. It makes things sort of uncomfortable for a few days (which really doesn't help because Tsuna needs to find out what makes this Other tick, and he can't do that if he's trying to keep him from shrinking away to some far area of his brain that he isn't aware exists until Tsuna the First disappears to a corner that has him stopping for a minute to question its existence) and Tsuna's just debating whether or not it's morally acceptable to kill for headache prevention, when his Others abruptly stop their strained silence. Just in time for the beginning of a new school week too.

Talk about timing.

So it's with a slightly overfull brain that Tsuna goes to his classes, and the first English class he has, he ends up not only writing out the English translation, but the Italian, French and Mandarin ones as well. He stares for three seconds in something very close to hysteria, eyes flicking between his hand - his _left_ hand, which he has never used to write with in his _life_ \- and his paper. It is far too neat and tidy to belong to any seven year old, let alone him. He sends a very dazed inquiry to his newest resident, the only one who could have brought this about because neither Yoshi ojii-san nor QT would do the extra work without reason and thus can't be blamed for muscle memory like this, and Tsuna the First feels suspiciously embarrassed.

The latter replies with an apology and explains that between his training and promotion to mafia boss, he always made extra copies of every document in multiple languages at a time, thus the bonus material. Also, Reborn made him slightly ambidextrous because of how many bones he broke or sprained in his hands during training. Tsuna takes this all in with patience uncommon in most children, and then he very calmly rips his paper into a few dozen pieces, telling his teacher he wanted confetti when she asks him what he's doing to his assignment.

He gets a zero and a scowl, but it's infinitely better than fear and a talk with the principal about being placed in a more advanced class because of his 'gift'. It's not even being deceitful because it really isn't him that knows how to use kanji characters differently. It just transferred over in the settlement of Tsuna's Other, somehow being one of the things to stick.

It's happened with the previous two Others as well; a habit or two of theirs that imprinted in his psyche along with a few memories. Not a lot, but enough that he has to be careful not to trigger anything that he shouldn't be able to do, like say, write in three other languages that he definitely shouldn't know given his lack of exposure to all of them. He's actually rather lucky that it hasn't happened before now.

This being said, he watches himself for the next week or so, making sure to stifle his uncharacteristic urges to bow or be way too polite to every girl or elder that he comes across. Also, his sudden fear of babies. Like, what even? Reborn could not have possibly inspired that much fear, even with his guns and grenade launchers and bugs and… Actually? Yeah, no, he sees it.

It takes about four months for things to calm down and for Tsuna to stop twitching at every beetle and the scent of espresso, which is honestly pretty good considering his other tenants (and he ends up making a list of things to avoid so that he doesn't trigger accidentally, which quickly grows into an entire journal coded in three different languages, that he carries around with him as a reminder that flashbacks are very unpleasant alone, so they'll be hellish in public). Still. It's a little difficult to come to grips with the fear-inspiring presence that is Reborn, his probable future tutor if everything goes the same as in Yoshi-ojii-san's and QT's universes. Tsuna the First just clams up when Tsuna prods at him for memories of the infant, and the other two don't want to spoil the fun, so Tsuna resigns himself to getting his ass kicked in training that gives his nightmares nightmares.

This is his life and he wants to ask why, but feels that it's really pointless by now, and that it would be easier to try and take it as it comes. It would be easier to do if he didn't get a new Other every time he lowers his guard and starts to relax.

…

* * *

 **Present:**

Someone is screaming in his ears, and he doesn't think it's him this time. Someone else is talking quickly, there's a hand on his shoulder but that _hurts_ , so he wrenches himself away. He's trying to figure out why he's seeing a bedroom when he should be seeing a battlefield, when he should be seeing an executioner stand.

 _-He was - is - burning, death by fire and isn't that so ironic? So ironic he could laugh if he could stop the screaming-_

Tsuna forces the Other away hard, shoves him into a mental box with a wince and an apology. It actually isn't him screaming but it sounds like it is since it's coming from inside his head. The rest of his Others are trying to order themselves and not freak out so that they don't melt his brain from the strain, and he's trying to get away from the feeling of being burned alive at the stake, no less.

"Oh, shit," he mutters, clapping his hands over his ears so that he can think and organize his brain into its usual semi-neat boxes. The screaming only continues, and it's at that point that he realizes that it isn't only his newest Other screaming, but also the memory of someone else screaming _for_ him, someone who sounds disturbingly like his mother.

" _Shut up!"_ he yells desperately into the void of his mind, and though it doesn't stop entirely, the screaming backs off to a distant echo. Present and annoying, but better. He huffs and pants, relieved that he didn't make any loud noises.

That was new - normally it's just visions and memories and echoes of sounds, but the complete auditory overlap was and is disorienting, to say the least.

"T-Tsuna?"

He freezes, and remembers what he was doing before his newest Other arrived, who he is with. He looks up and sees a very pale Takeshi staring at him with wide eyes, scared and shocked. Any trace of good humor gone entirely. Damn.

He somehow musters a shaky smile.

"Sorry, I didn't want you to find out like this," he says, rasps really, because even though he didn't make a sound, his throat is tight enough that it's hard to breathe.

"Find out about what?" Takeshi looks extremely unnerved, but he isn't running away screaming (ha) so Tsuna will count it as a win.

"It's a - uh, kind of a long story, if you'll listen?" He means it to be a statement but it comes out as a question anyway. This newest Other is raging against the box he put it in and it's making it very hard to concentrate (something tells him that he's going to have a migraine tomorrow - he kind of gets those a lot, it's just a thing). Somehow he still sees Takeshi's minute nod. The flood of relief passing over him - because it isn't much but it's a chance and he'll take what he can get at this point - drowns out the noise of his newest Other momentarily. He puts that aside for later study and takes a deep breath.

It spills out in a hasty and unattractive conglomerate of words. The entire back story to his bizarre life, from that first Other when he was five to the one a few weeks ago. He doesn't give a lot of details, because there are some things that _no one_ needs to know about because they're so horrible and he won't subject anyone to that, let alone a friend. He does say that he has some triggers though. Like the scent of a certain type of polish that was very common in the Vongola mansion of one of his Others, or the taste of some exotic desert that another Other fancied so much.

Takeshi blinks and visibly tries to take it all in. Tsuna admits to himself that it all sounds very ludicrous, and if it wasn't him it's happening to, he would believe the claimer to be insane. Before his newest friend can come to this conclusion as well, he talks some more so that Takeshi will have the majority of the picture before he comes to a decision. He talks about his dozen plus one other presences, about when they came and they're personalities - but not how they died of course - naming each one with a reverence that he doesn't notice but that makes Takeshi's eyes sharpen in slight understanding.

When he's finished with his latest Other, Big T, he sits and waits (hoping but trying not to hope because he sort of gave that up years ago), and his Others are more or less organized now though he knows he'll have some nightmares and visions tonight (are they flashbacks if they aren't really his memories?). He's also trying really hard not to hyperventilate, because, who knew, talking about it all does _not_ actually make it easier to accept, and he thinks that discussing it might actually be a trigger and shit if that's true because then he'll have to go through this God awful process every time he wants to tell someone the truth.

"Who else knows?" And Tsuna looks up from where he's drilling a hole into his clasped hands, because why would Takeshi care if he isn't planning on sticking around? His Rain offers a slightly unsure but completely sincere smile, and Tsuna relaxes.

"No one," he says. Takeshi looks taken aback, which is probably reasonable.

"No one?" he repeats. "Not Hayato? Not your mother?"

"No one," Tsuna says. Even Reborn only has a facsimile of the truth. "You're the first."

"Why…" Takeshi trails off. Tsuna understands. Why him before all the others, why no one else?

"Mom has enough to deal with already. She knows I get what she calls fits, and she knows that I have panic attacks sometimes. Hayato doesn't know much of either since he hasn't been around for long. My tutor, Reborn, I told that I get strange dreams and visions about things I don't know about, which is mostly the truth, but isn't all of it," Tsuna says. "I probably would have held off on telling you too, if a new Other hadn't just arrived."

And Tsuna can very acutely feel that particular Other trying to pull himself together, but he figures that not everyone has experience with dying multiple times like he does. It's a slow process, one he'll be happy to start when there's no one around that he can freak out.

"What's he like?" Takeshi asks almost timidly. Tsuna blinks. He hadn't expected that question.

"I don't know," he confesses. "I mean, I haven't talked to him and I only got a little bit of his life when he came. I'll probably get more through dreams or something later." Speaking of his Others' lives, he needs to update his trigger list soon. It is incredibly unpleasant to be caught unawares, and the last thing he needs is to be set off by the scent of, like, strawberries.

"Oh." Takeshi doesn't say anything more and Tsuna tries to marshal his thoughts into reasonable coherency. His newest Other isn't making as much noise anymore, and the screaming has stopped, but he doesn't want to take any chances with Takeshi right here. "Well, I mean, I know it wasn't your choice, but thanks for telling me," Takeshi says eventually. Tsuna tries to muster up a smile for him. It probably doesn't work. "Is - is there anything I can do to help? If you trigger or something?"

Tsuna can't help it. He gapes.

"What? Um, no - I-I don't know. Um. I've never had someone ask me that question so…" he trails off awkwardly. Takeshi stares some more. It's probably going to be a trend with the people in his life from now on.

"Titanic," Takeshi says suddenly. Tsuna's eyes go wide.

"What?" he asks.

Takeshi shrugs and says with a completely straight face, "Sorry. I thought it would be a good icebreaker. I was wrong."

It takes a minute, and Tsuna's gaping again, but when it clicks he starts to giggle uncontrollably. Takeshi spends exactly two seconds keeping a straight face, and then he cracks up as well. It's terrible, it isn't even a very good joke, but Nana finds them a few minutes later - with the promised snacks - wheezing on the floor. She just shakes her head fondly.

"Boys," she says. She leaves the tray and Tsuna tries fruitlessly to stop laughing. Some of it is hysterical, some of it is genuine, but all of it is completely relieved. His head hurts like hell and his mind is on the verge of giving in to another quiet meltdown, but it'll be fine because Takeshi is going to stick around.

He has someone who knows and they're _going to stay_. This? This is the best day in his life.

…

* * *

"What do you want, Reborn?"

Reborn smirks at the snappy answer. "Mammon. Is that any way to speak to an old friend?" he asks.

"Get to the point. Each minute is costing you money," Mammon says impatiently. Reborn's smirk fades as he becomes serious.

"Tell me, has Tsunayoshi Sawada knowingly been in contact with any mafia members besides myself and Smokin' Bomb Hayato?" he asks. The voice on the other end of the phone is silent for a moment.

"Muu, isn't this your deal? Why would I know what the Young Lion's brat is up to?" Mammon says, unimpressed. Reborn's own impatience rises.

"Just answer, Viper," he says somewhat bitingly. The Mist sighs.

"Well, Iemitsu picked one hell of a place for his civilian family. Namimori is overseen by the Hibari clan, and it has numerous small Yakuza groups scattered around it. Not to mention the kind of attention it's attracted since Smokin' Bomb and yourself arrived there. Mafia, however, have not been seen there since Nono and Iemitsu visited when Tsunayoshi was five," Mammon said slowly. Reborn looks over the sparse notes that Iemitsu deigned to give him to prepare him for the assignment and resists the urge to fly to Italy to shoot the idiot right between his Goddamn eyes.

"Iemitsu is so incompetent that he can't even write a file of his own family properly," he mutters.

"Noted," Mammon says dryly. "Anything else besides the conclusion of Iemitsu's appalling lack of competence? Or should I go ahead and send the bill now?"

Reborn sighs. "I'm done for now. Send the bill to Namimori."

Mammon agrees a little too eagerly and hangs up. Reborn stares thoughtfully at the image of his student. This is the third lead gone cold in as many weeks in regards to his student's dreams.

"So, Dame-Tsuna," he says, "Just where did you hear about the Arcobaleno?" A rather sadistic smirk creeps over his face. "I guess I'll just have to get the information at its source."

…

* * *

Somewhere in Namimori, Tsuna halts mid conversation to shiver as his intuition screams at him that danger is incoming.

…

* * *

Tsuna has had to deal with no less than two almost meltdowns from his newest Other (still unnamed because he won't come out and talk like a rational person, but Tsuna's considering Tuna Torch), three attacks on his person by bullies, _four_ attacks to his sanity and body from _Reborn_ , two (one-sided) fights between Hayato and Takeshi, and gossip about the nature of the relationship between him and his new friend. Some people suspect pity, others blackmail.

The point is, he is not at all ready to deal with a five year old who throws around grenades like candy, and who is apparently important enough to the future to make Tsuna's Others react. This is his life now. A parade of people who may or may not set off the presences in his mind. It didn't used to be like this. The reactions were less severe and they were fewer and far between. Yoshi-ojii-san tells Tsuna to get used to it because things will definitely get worse. Tsuna sourly notes how he doesn't add that they'll get better.

"Lambo-san is here!" the five year old, who is rapidly becoming the number one cause of Tsuna's problems in life, screams, waving around what looks like...a machine gun. Except, miniaturized to fit a child. Tsuna would like to take a moment to just ask _why_. He doesn't.

Instead, he shoots a glare at the calm Reborn (and this is all his fault, he knows it, the bastard) and walks over to Lambo.

"Uh, Lambo? That's your name, right?" he says, interrupting the surprisingly murderous tirade on how he's going to kill Reborn. Tsuna understands the sentiment entirely, but thinks that Reborn would sooner eat his own hat than lose to this child. The cow-child turns his enormous eyes to Tsuna.

"Ha! Yes! I am the Great Lambo. You can be my first subordinate," he says self-importantly. Tsuna refrains from rolling his eyes.

"I don't think so, but in the meantime, why are you here?" he asks. Lambo disregards his refusal and instead launches into some nonsense about being given a mission to kill Reborn so that he can go back home. Tsuna takes a minute to process and then tiredly asks his Others about this newest development.

A few summon some memories of dealings with the Bovino family, most of them unpleasant due to how they treated their own heir. Who also happens to be Tsuna's Lightning Guardian ( _Enjoy_ , they say somewhat meanly).

" _Is that even legal?"_ he asks them a little desperately. They just snicker at his misfortune and leave him to make his own conclusions. It's the mafia. Of course it's allowed, if on the more dubious side of things. Come to think of it, he should probably just get used to living his life in the grey from now on.

"Okay, Lambo. I understand the need to commit homicide even if you're only _five_ , but we can't do that here," he says to the child. Lambo looks at him, paused mid grenade chuck. Tsuna hastily rectifies this, grabbing it and throwing it out the window before it can destroy his room.

"Why not?" Lambo asks in confusion. Clearly no one has taught this child anything about anything. Tsuna has not signed on to be a part-time parent/older brother/whatever the hell else children need these days. He replies anyway.

"Because my mom is here. No weapons or violence around my mother. _Understood_?" Tsuna smiles nicely like his mother taught him, and Lambo shivers and nods.

"Y-yeah! Lambo-san will follow the request of his subordinate for now," he blusters. Tsuna's smile stops resembling that of a deranged man on his last bit of patience and he turns back to an analytical Reborn and his homework.

"You got him to be silent. It's progress," he says at last. Tsuna rolls his eyes. Would it kill him to say, 'Good job'? Maybe.

Tsuna is suitably less impressed when Lambo turns up at dinner. Nana doesn't mind, but Tsuna knows that they aren't particularly well off and that the feeding and watering of the two of them plus Reborn puts something of a strain on their resources **(1)**. And Lambo doesn't have the social graces that Reborn does, demanding high quality food and ingredients. Not to mention that Hayato comes over every morning for breakfast, which admittedly isn't his fault, but still.

Nana, of course, offers Lambo a place to stay because she's literally an angel. Lambo accepts without a second thought and Tsuna's left to try and think of a way to ease the financial burden. Nana waves him off when he tentatively brings it up, but he can see the slight crinkle in her brow when she does taxes or puts together the meal list for the week.

His Others suggest a job. Tsuna gives them a mental look that's equivalent to, _You're telling_ _ **me**_ _, Dame-Tsuna, to get a_ _ **job**_ _? I'm only thirteen! It isn't legal!_ , and the idea is stashed away for later.

"Tsuna, it's fine," Nana says. He can tell that she's somewhat on edge because of the missing honorific, but he presses anyway.

"But Mom, couldn't we just ask Reborn to-" he tries. She interrupts with a frown.

"I won't ask a child to pay for food and board, Tsunayoshi," she says firmly. She softens at his chagrined but determined expression. "It's okay," she says reassuringly. "We just have to stretch the budget a little. I may need to get a job, since the money your father left us isn't enough to sustain this many people. You'll watch Lambo-kun and Reborn-kun won't you?"

Tsuna deflates and nods. Of course he will. Even if it's a pain in the ass, he'll still do whatever it takes to help her out. She smiles at him.

"Thank you, Tsu-kun. I'll start looking tomorrow," she says.

She ends up getting a full time job at a local business as a secretary, and her hours are from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon, every week day. It's an adjustment. Tsuna makes his own lunch, Lambo's lunch, and occasionally Reborn's and Gokudera's. He walks Lambo over to a nearby daycare since he can't stay home alone - after confiscating all of the weapons that he hides in his hair (how is that sanitary?). The Others don't like this change but they see the necessity for it. Apparently their versions of Nana never had to get another job.

Nana comes home tired but with a smile in time to make dinner, and their finances _are_ better, so Tsuna keeps his reservations to himself. The days wear on him, and he isn't too pleased when Reborn decides to hold an entrance test for Takeshi.

"Entrance test?" Tsuna repeats tiredly, scrubbing his face. It was another late night last night, getting Lambo to sleep after his mother collapsed on her bed, and having another nightmare to boot. He's getting less sleep now than ever before, which is saying something. "Why? If I say he can join, doesn't that mean he's in already?"

Not that he wants Takeshi to be a part of the mafia of course, but if Takeshi is close than he can protect him better. Yes, it makes sense in his head, shut up Others.

"You're finally settling into your boss attitude," Reborn says approvingly, and geez, this guy doesn't quit. Always about the mafia with this one. Then Reborn smirks, which is the only warning Tsuna has for the kick to the head that he receives. "But don't go trying to order me around."

"I wasn't…" Tsuna gives up. "Fine. But I have to take it with him since he's part of my family and all."

The glint in Reborn's eyes tell him that this declaration is a mistake.

Twelve minutes later, Tsuna agrees with it and curses himself for his stupidity. Hayato's yelling apologies through the sound of dynamite exploding, Takeshi is laughing like a maniac (freaking adrenaline junky), and Reborn's just watching it all happen with a smirk. Then Lambo turns up, having apparently run away from daycare, and he pulls out a missile launcher. That's it. Tsuna is so done right now.

" _ENOUGH_!" he screams, halting all explosions, gun fire, laughter, knife throwing and smirking. He points an accusing finger at Lambo. "Why the _hell_ aren't you at daycare? And I thought I took away all of your guns!"

Lambo just laughs arrogantly at him. "The Great Lambo-san always has tricks up his sleeve. Besides, he shouldn't have to stay at daycare like everyone el-"

"Lambo, get back to daycare or I'll tell my mom to never give you candy again," Tsuna says through gritted teeth. Lambo pales, stows his missile launcher, and hightails it back to the daycare center. Tsuna whirls around and jabs his finger at Reborn. Some part of him is screeching at his audacity, but the rest of him is too sleep deprived to care.

"Are we done yet? Because Hayato's almost out of dynamite, Takeshi _still has a broken arm_ , and I have to go home and clean before Mama comes back and sees what a mess Lambo made this morning. _And_ I still have to do homework!" he says. Well, yells, really, but for the sake of his own sanity he's going to pretend that he didn't just yell at Reborn.

And because he wants to dig his grave deeper, he doesn't wait for a response but gives a goodbye to his friends and walks away. He would feel liberated if he didn't feel terrified of what Reborn might do to him. He's so distracted that he doesn't notice the bicyclist until she says, "Here. Have this." She tosses a can at him and leaves before he can get a good look at her.

His intuition flares just as he goes to catch it, so he lets it hit the ground instead. What pours out certainly isn't any type of juice that he's seen before. And it's smoking.

A bird drops dead right in front of him and he decides that he's been through enough today.

If he runs home, well, he has good reasons. His Others are suspiciously quiet about this new development, which means that it's either really good or really bad. It's a tossup, because this particular silence occurred with both Takeshi and Gokudera - good things - but also with Reborn and Lambo - things he's still on the fence about.

"Reborn, I think someone tried to kill me today," Tsuna says tiredly, entering his house. Reborn turns around and there are beetles crawling all over his face. Tsuna sighs. He just can't muster up the energy to be surprised anymore.

"What's with the beetles?" he gestures to his tutor's face.

"They collect information for me," Reborn says a little primly. Like what he's doing is perfectly normal. As if anything about Reborn could be normal. "Because of that, I was able to ascertain that Bianchi is in town."  
"Bianchi?" Tsuna asks. Reborn nods.

"A fellow hitman," he informs him. Tsuna feels his shoulders slump. More of them? He likes Hayato well enough, but the rest are a bit...well, insane is a bit of an understatement. Before he can ask, the doorbell rings.

"Italian pizza delivery!" someone says cheerfully. Tsuna frowns. He didn't order pizza. He looks through the peephole and narrows his eyes. It's the same woman who threw the drink at him.

"Reborn," Tsuna says carefully, not looking away, "does Bianchi happen to have long pink hair and green eyes?"

"Why yes, she does." Reborn hops on his shoulder. "You know, it's impolite to leave a guest waiting on the front doorstep."  
"I think I can be forgiven for leaving someone who tried to _kill_ me outside of my house," Tsuna snaps. "Why the hell did she choose me, anyway?" Reborn shrugs.

"Ask her and find out," he says. Before Tsuna can refuse to do this, his tutor - who wants him dead he _swears_ \- opens the door and lets the woman in.

"Here you go, Italian specialty," Bianchi says, making to open the pizza box. Tsuna stops her by slamming it shut and whisking it away. Lots of practice quickly confiscating things from Lambo.

"If this is an Italian specialty, my life is a lie," he says flatly, holding it far away in case it starts to melt through the box or something. She looks surprised. "Why the hell are you here, and why are you trying to kill me?" he asks. Her look of surprise lasts for another second, and then she smirks at him and flips her hair. Seriously, what is with everyone smirking at him like that? It's severely annoying.

"Not bad, young Vongola," she purrs. That's annoying too. It's like people think that the only defining characteristic he has is that he's the Vongola Decimo primary candidate. "Yes, I am trying to kill you. I want Reborn back - you stole him from me."

Tsuna gapes unattractively, ire melting away in the face of sheer _the fuck did you just say_. He looks at Reborn, who is impassive. "That Reborn? Right there?" he asks. She nods seriously. "Wait, when you say you want him back…?"

"I mean that I love him and I want to be with him," she says. _Obviously_ goes unsaid. Tsuna turns to Reborn for an explanation since she isn't about to start making sense any time soon.

"Bianchi is my lover," Reborn informs him.

' _Ewww, that's gross,'_ is Tsuna's first thought. _'How does that even work?'_ is his second. _'What the hell does a baby know about sex anyway?'_ is his third **(2)**. His brain sometimes. Not really wanting to continue down that line of thought, he says, "So...you want him to come be with you, so your first thought is to kill me?"

She nods. "Why the hell didn't you at least ask him first?" he asks in exasperation. "I don't know much about being a hitman, but wouldn't Reborn be pissed at you for making him fail his mission?"

"My mission is to train you, not protect you," Reborn interjects mildly. Tsuna ignores the sliver of hurt that jabs itself into his heart at that as his tutor turns to Bianchi and says, "My job is to train him. Until it is done, I will not be leaving."

"You can't train me if I'm dead," Tsuna mutters rebelliously. Both ignore him. Bianchi sniffs dramatically.

"Very well. I will just have to make sure that young Vongola has a 'tragic accident' so that you can come with me again," she promises. Tsuna feels a flash of cold at the thought of her trying something when his mother is here. His mother who has done nothing but be the best she can be, who waits patiently for his jackass father despite him doing nothing to deserve it, his mother who accepted both Lambo and Reborn into their home even with the messes they bring, his mother who is the best Goddamn person on this shitty planet and who doesn't deserve to die because her son got wrapped up in the mafia.

"Wait." His voice is completely unlike his usual one, commanding, and his Others might be joining his protective stance here because it sounds to him like there were multiple voice speaking at once when he did. Bianchi turns slowly and seems surprised by what she finds in his eyes. He meets her gaze evenly. "If you hurt my mother in any way," he says quietly, "I will _destroy_ you. Got it?"

There's a charged silence, and even his Others are silent as stone. They recognize the importance of this. Finally she nods, and he thinks he sees a bit of respect in her eyes when she says, "Noted, Vongola. I will not harm your mother."

There's a moment of mutual understanding there. Then, she ruins it by saying, "What kind of hitman would I be if I couldn't even control collateral damage? When I come for you, it'll be _only_ you."

Tsuna's surprisingly okay with this arrangement. "So long as we're clear," he says with a lopsided smile. She leaves. Reborn gives him an unreadable look - he's been getting a lot of those lately. He says nothing though, merely tips his fedora and leaves via jumping onto the window sill and out of it. Tsuna's left with a now steaming pizza box, a headache, and a whole lot of questions.

Nothing new here then.

* * *

 **(1): I always thought that Tsuna's mom would have to stretch money for food for all of the people staying with them. I know that some people have head canons that Nana is given a lotta money from Iemitsu, but I just can't see that happening for some reason. I think they're just a middle-class family and that Iemitsu's money isn't enough to sustain what ends up being three children + Reborn, Tsuna, Bianchi and Nana herself. Just...no. So, the job. Realism for the win!**

 **(2): So, Tsuna obviously has some missing knowledge about the Arcobaleno curse since he sees Bianchi as the guilty party in her and Reborn's relationship (I was so disturbed when I read up on her age. What happened to '1/2 your age + 7'?). To clear since things up, here's what he does know thanks to his Others: Reborn has been cursed somehow, there are seven Arcobaleno - well actually eight because of that weird thing with Lal and Colonello - that match the seven Flames, and he knows about the Pacifiers and the power-storing thing. That's about it. So do with that what you will, but know that he'll learn the rest in time.**

* * *

 **Guest Reviews (Bottom to Top):**

 **Snowyh2o:** **Thanks for the review! I think I started out with writing the Others as darker and stuff, but realized that not all of them would be cruel and harsh all of the time - it's unrealistic, especially since they're all different versions of Tsuna, you know? Sorry about the cliffhanger, I couldn't resist, and I didn't have anywhere else to end the chapter. But here's a slightly longer chapter than usual to make up for the wait! Glad you liked it, and thanks again for reviewing!**

 **Anna:** **Hi, so I'm just going to answer all three of your reviews in one, hope you don't mind. Firstly, you're awesome for taking the time to review all three chapters like you did. Second, I'm glad you enjoyed my story so much. Thanks a lot for the awesome reviews and sorry for the wait.**

 **Ame:** **Happy that you like how I'm portraying Tsuna. I'm trying to keep his fundamental characteristics the same while also changing some other aspects because of his differing situation from canon Tsuna. Thank you so much for review, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter too.**

 **Drummer:** **Hello again. Yes, Tsuna is just muddling along like everyone else. He thinks he's a little useless, but considering what people have been telling him his entire life, it's not really any wonder he thinks that. And I personally don't like stories where main characters have no flaws and are perfect - it's severely annoying, in fact, when writers try and make characters with perfectly reasonable flaws godlike and OOC. So. Thank you for the review, glad you like the story, and I am terribly sorry about the wait.**

* * *

 **A/N: Not much action from the Others (new and old) - er, in regards to parenthesis anyways - this chapter, but they'll be coming next chapter. I think. I was surprised and happy with all of the positive reception for QT and Yoshi ojii-san - I had to try and think up back stories for the names the me from however many months ago randomly generated (Curse her, she didn't think about plot at all, only cool/funny nicknames!) but it looks like it's mostly working out. As for Reborn questioning Tsuna - it's coming; he's lulling him into a false sense of relaxation or something. Anyway, sorry this is so extremely late, but ya know. Stuff. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for waiting so patiently, please review on your way out if you have any questions, comments or concerns - and have a ni' da'!**


	5. Chapter 5: When the sky falls, we

**A/N: Alright, so we - meaning me - have been having some issues with the whole 'Nana needs a job to support her family when Iemitsu is the head of the CEDEF'. Here's my thinking, because it wasn't just to create more drama/tension:**

 **Iemitsu is the head of CEDEF, yes, but that branch is also mafia and therefore he can't exactly advertise his actual career choice, Vindice aside. He has told his son and his wife that he is a construction worker. Presumably, he's told the government this as well. Now, the internet tells me that workers make an average of $35,000 a year, with variances for skill and location. Let's assume he's especially good and makes around $40,000 – $50,000 a year. Now, the average construction worker salary in Japan is around $46,000. Namimori is, obviously, not real, but it** _ **is**_ **based on Japan, which as a whole, has a very high cost of living. Seeing as his family isn't staying in Italy, it's safe to assume that they have to deal with that.**

 **Since Iemitsu is admittedly smarter than anyone wants to give him credit for, he would probably realize that a construction worker making higher than $50,000 a year is suspicious. As such, I thought that he'd send money to his family according to what he** _ **should**_ **be getting according to his own cover story. Ergo, the Sawadas are living the life of a middle-class family in Japan, and Nana needs some extra money to take care of the strays that her son is bringing home. I apologize if I confused anyone, or offended anyone, but this was my line of thought.**

 **Not to mention that in Chapter 13 of the manga, Tsuna complains about the noodles his mother is serving for dinner, commenting that they've been eating leftovers a lot recently. Nana responds with embarrassment and that it's better for them financially. Maybe that's just her being frugal, but I chose to interpret that as them being tight on money due to her having to suddenly feed two children, a female teen, and whoever Tsuna brings home for dinner, in addition to her and her son. I don't know if you realize, but teenage boys eat a** _ **lot**_ **of food. Speaking as one with a male sibling, I can personally attest to that.**

 **End rant: Important notice at the bottom of the chapter. Please enjoy the story.**

* * *

 ** _Summary:_** **Tsuna has never been what would be defined as 'normal', what with future versions of him coming back and taking place in his mind. But when the baby hitman shows up, everything goes awry and nothing happens like it should - according to the future hims, anyway. (T for Language and Violence, Gen).**

 ** _Rating:_** **T and most likely won't change.**

 ** _Genres:_** **Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Adventure, Angst, maybe more, I don't know.**

 ** _Warnings:_** **Language, OOCness, SPOILERS, breaking canon, it gets worse before it gets better, breaking Tsuna, violence, mentions of character deaths, AU, lethal amounts of exasperation, Tsuna is DONE, multiple cases of PTSD in one mind, warnings are individual per chapter. No yaoi, yuri, shounen or shoujo ai, no slash, incest, necrophilia, or anything resembling pedophilia (that isn't already canon, anyway, *cough*Reborn*cough*). No smut or non-con.**

 ** _Pairings_** **: Gen, friendships, mentorships.**

"Speech"

 _Flashbacks/Other's speaking/Dreams_

' _Thoughts'_

 **(#): A/N to explain stuff at the end.**

* * *

 **A Gathering of Skies Chapter 5: When the sky falls, we ask for help**

 **By: AngelicSilverWolf**

 _'Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.' - Jeff Kinney_

* * *

Tsuna has a blessedly restful eighth year. To his great pleasure, no new Others appear. Mistakenly, he lets his guard down. This is a foolish idea because-

The Others wait until he's nine before seeming to come all at once. He gets one on his birthday, then another two months later, than another two months after that, then two at the _same time_ three months after that _-_

He wonders a little caustically why they all had to die the same year. By the time he turns ten, he has six new Others to deal with. Consequently, he spends a lot of time when he's nine and ten as an extremely dedicated introvert. He emerges from his self-inflicted exile when he's ten and a half, wiser and sadder in equal measures.

His fourth Other is dubbed Double O Neo, because he lived life like a super spy, always in the shadows and using more underhanded means to get his way - sort of like James Bond but not nearly as heroic. He was the Decimo of a Vongola with a traitor in its midst that passed information to enemy families for over three years before he was caught. Thanks to the traitor's information and the timing of his capture, the Vongola fell to an onslaught from four smaller families banded together. The members not arrested or killed off joined together to create a new family - Vongola Ricordo (Vongola Remembrance). They melted away, swearing vengeance, and for about six years there was nothing about them or any surviving members. It was as if they had all disappeared off the face of the earth.

This Vongola was weakened and had to bide its time, working through what meager connections they had left, hence the spy life. The Decimo personally went on many missions to secure information or finances. Only three of his guardians had survived the attack from the four families, and they too were on the front lines with him. They all had new identities, different appearances. For all intents and purposes, the Vongola Decimo and his retinue no longer existed.

Then, a few days before the planned retaliation, alone and weary, Double O Neo died when his temporary location was discovered and subsequently surrounded by over two hundred enemy family members. He died from Flame exhaustion after he exterminated every single one of them, including the foolish boss who had assumed two hundred would be enough to take out a vengeful Vongola Decimo.

Tsuna spends some quality time in the bathroom throwing up while he learns what it's like to burn his fist through a human body. He makes a tentative connection with the newest Other, disturbed by the amount of frustrated _rage_ that encompasses him. Yoshi ojii-san and QT try their best to pacify the grief-stricken Decimo (Tsuna the First has a personality that doesn't mesh well with the newer Other, so he wisely stays away), but nothing works. So, Tsuna pretends to fall sick - not actually too hard to pretend when this Other's flashes of emotions and memories are making him nauseous - and stays home from school for two days. Nana is worried, of course, but he manages to divert her suspicion with a somewhat true report of how everyone at school has been getting sick too (and is it worrying that he's getting so used to lying to his own mother?). **(1)**

Two days later, Tsuna feels marginally more comfortable in his own skin. Double O Neo has accepted his lot in life as a bizarre presence in an alternate universe's Tsunayoshi, and he even feels something besides hurt and righteous fury. Tsuna takes this as a win, no matter that his newest Other is vowing to take out the traitor in this universe before he can cause the family to fall again. Fortunately, Double O Neo seems to understand the need to fit in with the general populace a bit better than the previous Others, so Tsuna gets a list of possible triggers to watch out for (the sound of a camera clicking? Really?).

It's nice to try and fit in, even if he knows it's all a farce. Normal children - hell, normal _peopl_ e - do not know twelve ways to kill someone before they can raise the alarm, or how to detect poisoned foods and drinks. But he likes to pretend he's just a normal kid.

It would be much easier to pretend, of course, if the Others would _stop coming_ at the worst of times.

…

* * *

 **Present:**

Reborn watches amidst his tutoring. Contrary to popular belief, he doesn't spend all of his time touting mafia rules. But he does constantly observe. He doesn't sleep half as much as Tsunayoshi believes he does, not nearly as much as the boy himself does.

Therefore, he notices that Tsunayoshi is quite unusual. He's a bundle of paradoxes that shouldn't exist in a single person, but he does and he is. Tsunayoshi is both disgustingly timid and ridiculously brave at the wrong times. He shrinks into himself at the sight of bullies, but he dares to backtalk _Reborn_. He's alarmingly lacking in school intelligence, but his frankly strange amounts of common sense and wisdom beyond his years makes Reborn reconsider the name 'Dame-Tsuna'. Not that he'll offer a different name, of course.

Tsunayoshi varies between being on the edge of a nervous breakdown, cool and collected, and in the middle of daydreaming. Reborn occasionally catches him with his eyes distant and his head slightly tilted, like he's listening to something. Reborn has listened with him, but he hears nothing, which leads him to believe that Tsunayoshi either talks to himself or has a mental condition that hasn't been recorded.

But personality aside, the thing that _intrigues_ Reborn the most is that Tsunayoshi Sawada knows things that he has no business knowing. He knew about the Arcobaleno, though Reborn doesn't know exactly _what_ he knows. The fact that he knows they exist at all is alarming and unexpected.

(And Reborn doesn't _like_ the unexpected.)

Tsunayoshi is skittish, clearly has PTSD if the way he carefully avoids certain items and situations is any indicator, and altogether doesn't act at all like a normal civilian. Reborn contemplated infiltration, but he has ultimately decided that this is the real Tsunayoshi Sawada. No impersonator could have Sky Flames so strong or pure. Which means that there's something else at play, and for the first time in a long time, Reborn feel uneasy. He wants _answers._ And he'll get them, this time from the source.

…

* * *

Tsuna has spent the last week in a decidedly twitchy state of mind.

Reborn has been acting weird - weirder than usual. Tsuna catches him staring intensely at him at all hours of the day, during breakfast, during lunch, occasionally from a tree during school - which isn't something Tsuna needs right now, thanks - and almost constantly when he's being tutored. Reborn is, dare Tsuna think it, _uneasy_. At least, that's what he's concluded after his Others cough up some more memories. He hopes he isn't wrong, because the other answer is paranoid, and that leads to dark and dangerous things.

Reborn being uneasy makes Tsuna uneasy, because what could cause the Number One Hitman in the World to be like this but something terrible and hellish? Accordingly, Tsuna is more keyed up than normal when he hears the ever so innocent click of a camera.

Instantly, his body reacts. In a blink of an eye, Tsuna grabs Takeshi and Hayato and shoves them to the ground, while he himself reaches for his gun.

They must have found him, even if he doesn't know how. He thought he was doing well with blending in with the natives but apparently not. No matter. They'll die for finding him and reporting him in.

 _They are not getting his family, not again, those motherfuckers. He will burn the city to the ground - hell, the_ _ **country**_ _if he needs to-_

"Tenth? Tsuna!"

Tsuna blinks and squints through his suddenly blurry vision. He wipes his eyes and discovers that he's crying, which would be just plain embarrassing, but he's too concerned with not knowing what the hell is going on. His Others are a mess that he won't be touching with a ten foot pole until later, and unfortunately they seem to be scrambling his thought process. It takes a moment for the situation to sink in.

His vision clears completely, and the first thing he notices is some random people gawking at him. Mothers are hurrying their pointedly staring children away from him, and one person seems to be reaching for his phone to take a video. It's about this point in time that he looks down and sees Hayato and Takeshi on the ground (where he _threw_ them, what the hell). He startles out of his protective crouch and lands on his ass, and then he proceeds to crabwalk away in slowly increasing horror.

Oh, oh no. What has he done? No, no, no.

 _Nonononono-_

"Tsuna?" Takeshi sits up and looks at him in concern because they were _just walking home from school, why now why them why here_ -

Tsuna swallows through a suddenly dry throat.

"I-I-" he croaks. He's interrupted by the sound of someone landing behind him, and suddenly everyone who was watching can't get away fast enough. With a feeling of increasing dread (rising over the more prominent terrified shame), he looks around and sees none other than Hibari Kyouya. _Perfect_. Like this day wasn't shit enough already.

Cool grey eyes sweep over him, and something like understanding flashes in them before Hibari speaks. "Herbivore," he says calmly. Tsuna tries not to squawk in fear. "Can you stand?"

That's a very good question. _Can_ he stand? What's the matter with sitting, anyway? The ground feels nice and solid, unlike his legs which seem to have turned into jelly while he wasn't looking.

"Herbivore." Hibari sounds impatient. He should probably answer, but his mouth won't open. He feels himself literally shunted aside as his Others push Tsuna the First into control. It's like watching a movie from the eyes of the main character. He's had this happen before, and he dislikes it just as much now as he did then (they chose Tsuna the First because he's the most like Tsuna in his weak disposition and awkward flailing).

"K-Hibari-san," Tsuna the First stutters, tripping over the name he normally uses. "W-why are you here?"

Hibari's eyes narrow. He seems to search for inconsistencies, and looks extremely displeased when he doesn't find any.

"There was a disturbance," he says shortly. Tsuna the First blinks.

Then, like he has a death wish or something, he asks, "So why you aren't biting everyone to death?" Tsuna chokes as best as a person mentally can and decides that he's going to have to do something before his Other gets him killed. They are very similar in personality, and that means being absolutely terrible under pressure. He forcefully takes over as Hibari's eyes narrow dangerously.

"U-uh, never mind, sorry," Tsuna says nervously. "I'm fine, and very, very sorry that I disturbed the peace and caused a crowd." Backbone he might have around Lambo and occasionally Reborn, this is Hibari. This is Kyouya I-Will-Hospitalize-You-Without-Blinking Hibari. At least Reborn is under contract not to actively kill his student. Tsuna stands and offers an aborted, cringe worthy, bow and then proceeds to tuck his tail between his legs and head for the hills - or even better, his house.

This day has gone to the dogs. He can't even right now.

Takeshi and Hayato scramble up after him, and Hibari seems to decide it isn't worth bothering himself over, thank goodness.

And all the while, Reborn watches it all.

"Interesting," he mutters. Leon curiously nudges the disposable camera in his hands.

Tsuna doesn't feel the shiver run down his back because he's too busy shaking from nerves, humiliation, and the after effects of a PTSD flare up. He'll wish he had, later, for some semblance of warning.

...

* * *

Tsuna recovers.

Hayato - bless him - doesn't question why his best friend/future maybe-probably boss freaked out on him and caused an enormous scene. Takeshi - bless him - doesn't bring it up once after an initial gentle inquiry, the day after Tsuna ran away like the coward he is. His mother - bless her (hell, bless 'em all for dealing with this so well) - chalks up his state to stress from school, forgives him for not picking up Lambo from daycare, and takes extra time to prepare him an enormous lunch for the following day.

Reborn - curse him to the hottest pits in hell - only increases training time. Coincidentally, he almost hits a few dozen triggers on the way. It would be coincidental, but Tsuna knows better. Especially when it comes to his tutor. Thankfully, Tsuna also knows how to deal with the triggers now that he knows they're coming. The near visible frustration on Reborn's face is almost worth the extra pain.

It's one morning, a week or so after Tsuna's Big Sanity Break/Attempted Revolt of His Others that they run into a girl.

Just an ordinary, middle-school girl that thinks Reborn is the best thing since chocolate and who tries to attack Tsuna because apparently he's a bad influence.

Yeah. Tsuna's pretty much given up at this point.

She walks away with a scowl, and he watches her go with a sigh, hand rubbing his sore cheek.

"You should have caught her hand," Reborn admonishes. "It's a shameful time when a boss can't even stop a civilian from striking him."  
"Did you want me to break her wrist?" Tsuna asks caustically, not even touching on the fact that, technically, _he's_ a civilian too. "Because I'm not sure my pride is worth the lawsuit." Reborn turns to stare at him intensely.

"In the mafia, pride is important. Important enough that territory wars are started because of a wounded ego," he says. Well, that's pretty damn stupid in Tsuna's honest opinion.

"That's ridiculous," he says. "Why would anyone fight over-"

"Because if you let another family walk all over you, _disrespect_ you, then you are considered weak," Reborn interrupts.

"That's considered weak? What about turning the other cheek? Being the bigger man isn't common, I guess," Tsuna says somewhat smartly. He's had a hard week, okay. Reborn just smirks at him.

"Not if you want to be the most powerful family," he says. Tsuna rolls his eyes daringly. Power - it's always about power. Why can't people compete to be the most...happy? Peaceful, maybe. At this point, he'll even settle for passive-aggressive.

"Tsuna-kun!"

Tsuna turns to see Hayato striding towards him with Takeshi in tow.

"Good morning," Tsuna greets.

"Yo, Tsuna," Takeshi says.

"Tsuna-kun! It has been an excellent morning!" Hayato goes to bow, but then stops and settles for smiling brightly. Well, at least something is going right today.

"Hey, Tsuna, what happened to your face?" Takeshi indicates the red weal on Tsuna's cheek. Tsuna scratches his neck awkwardly. How to explain that a girl hit him twice in the face, and yet his Others are still fond of her. Part of why he didn't dodge was because he was surprised by the overwhelming fondness that his Others felt for the girl - along with the usual grief/sadness/dread, but it was the fondness that really threw him off.

"Well, a girl slapped me," he confesses, because that's a bit more manly than admitting to getting punched in the face _after_ getting slapped. Though, judging by how Hayato nearly bites his cigarette in half and Takeshi's eyes darken with displeasure, that's enough.

Takeshi laughs a little, even though his eyes remain dangerous. "What did you do to deserve that?" he asks. Hayato shoots him an outraged expression, but Tsuna hastens to cut that argument off before it can happen.

"Um, I don't know. She thought I was brainwashing Reborn, or something," he says. And that's just ridiculous. Him? Pull the wool over _Reborn_?

"And then she slapped me," Tsuna finishes.

"She also punched you," Reborn adds (un)helpfully. Tsuna takes a moment to cast a despairing glance at the sky, and then he's stuck between trying to convince Hayato not to blow up her or her house, and calming Takeshi down so that he'll stop laughing that crazy, maniacal laugh.

That's pretty much the rest of his day.

The next day isn't much better. After the typical morning run that would make Olympic athletes cry for their mothers, Tsuna heads to school. That's all very well and good, but somewhere between there and coming back home, he finds himself first trying to stop Hayato from blowing up that girl - Haru - for challenging him and then, when that fails, he ends up rescuing her because she can't swim with all of her protective hockey gear on. He very, very, politely rejects her advances of...admiration - he's going with that because the other option hurts his brain just a lot - and then he proceeds to scurry to Lambo's daycare without making it look like he's running away.

Success. Or, at least, what he's counting towards it these days, anyway.

Of course, then he reaches the daycare and finds chaos. Lambo has, apparently, taken it upon himself to walk himself home. Without telling anyone.

Tsuna drags a hand over his face even as the poor girl manning the desk tearfully asks for forgiveness.

"No, of course, it's fine," he consoles her. "I'll talk to him about it." This is, after all, not the first time Lambo has just taken off.

Tsuna leaves and immediately heads for home. If his hunch is correct, and if Lambo's habits hold true, the younger boy should be raiding the fridge. When he opens the door to his house and says, "I'm home," his mother - who should be at work and nowhere near this shit - replies.

"In the kitchen, Tsu-kun," she says cheerfully. He steps into the kitchen and finds what is, quite frankly, a mess of flour, water, and a number of other substances.

"Mom, what…" he trails off when he finds the obvious source glued to the glass of the oven door. "Lambo!"

The kid doesn't even twitch. He's too busy drooling over whatever's in the oven.

"Lambo-kun called me home from work. He said it was an emergency," Nana says from where she's washing her hands. "When I got here, he said that all of the sweets in the house were eaten."

Tsuna deflates. "I'm so sorry, Mom. I didn't know- he ran away from the daycare again!" he says, shame clouding his face. Nana clucks her tongue and moves so that she's standing in front of him.

"It's alright, Tsu-kun. I can afford to take a day off here and then," she reassures him. "Besides! I wouldn't want my son and his friends to be without sweets." She pats his head and turns to Lambo. "Wait just ten more minutes, Lambo-kun," she says gaily.

Tsuna has to admit that seeing her like this is pretty nice. She's been tired lately; her job is difficult with its long hours and early mornings. Cooking always puts her in a better mood. Despite his irritation with Lambo, he feels grateful that the boy inspired the mood change in his mother.

The front door opens. Into the kitchen steps Hayato with Reborn on his shoulder. Takeshi must have gone home.

"Tsuna-kun!" Hayato greets.

"You ran off quite quickly," Reborn says, menace underlying his casual tone. Tsuna opens his mouth to refute the 'running away' part, but Lambo's head snaps around at Reborn's voice.

"Reborn!" he yells. Oh gosh. Tsuna thought they were past this.

Before Lambo can create even more of a mess, Tsuna swoops down and picks him up.

"Not in the kitchen, Lambo," he says, carefully making sure that Lambo is facing away from Reborn. Mostly so that Reborn can't antagonize him; he's a jerk like that.

"But, Tsuna," Lambo whines.

"No." Tsuna ruffles Lambo's head in reassurance. He starts to walk out of the kitchen, away from Reborn and - more importantly - his mother.

Of course, something goes wrong.

For no discernable reason, Lambo suddenly starts to struggle enough that holding him is a challenge, and Tsuna has to stop to readjust his grip.

"No, I must...kill... _Reborn_!" He manages to reach into his afro and pulls out his Ten-Year-Bazooka. Now, Tsuna has only seen this in action once, and it was memorable because apparently 15 year-old Lambo is as sensible as his younger self - as in, _not_ \- but he knows it's trouble. He doesn't think even his mother can pass off the ageing of a child as normal. Accordingly, Tsuna tries to grab it. Lambo pulls back.

It's a tug-of-war, and Lambo, frustrated, pulls the bazooka and accidentally pulls the trigger at the same time.

Almost as if in slow motion, Tsuna watches the blast bypass himself, just barely brush past Lambo, and head right for his mother.

"Eh?" Nana's eyes are wide. Then-

She's enveloped in a cloud of bright pink smoke.

" _MOM_!"

…

* * *

"No, no, no." Tsuna barely registers dropping Lambo and surging forwards.

The smoke clears. And, in place of his mother is…

His mother. But-

She's different.

Her hair is pinned in a no-nonsense bun, her smile is gone, and-

And-

One eye is missing. In its place is an ugly, horrifying scar. She is also very, very unconscious.

"No, dammit!" His Others are a mess because this isn't supposed to have happened - _this didn't happen in a dozen other universes why does it have to happen in his?_

He doesn't realize he's said this aloud until he feels a hand on his shoulder. He looks around, shaking, lost, so, so afraid, and finds Hayato's calm eyes.

"Breathe. She's definitely alive, Tsuna," his friend says. Was that even _in question_? What kind of world is he bringing his mother into that he has to make sure she's still _breathing_?

Tsuna shakes his head, as if in denial of the situation, and kneels at his mother's side. He checks her over, hands unsteady and breath coming in with great whooshes of air. He could be hyperventilating. He _is_ hyperventilating - his support, his anchor in his fucking mess of a mind and life, his wonderful, beautiful mother who's been here since he was born, always loving him no matter what and always trusting him though God knows he hasn't done much to deserve that is lying here, unconscious, because _he_ pulled her into this mess. Half-remembered training from his Others kicks in, and he finds himself taking her pulse, just in case. And he finds it, strong and steady, and he could cry with relief. He knows she's alive; obviously he can see her breathing, but the actual feel of her pulse is so reassuring that he feels dizzy.

Her breathing hitches. The one eye left ( _NO_!) cracks open.

"Tsu-kun?" she mumbles. She-

She still calls him that. Even after everything he must put her through - and does he _loath_ his future self for letting her go through whatever hell she's clearly been through; what use is he if he can't even protect the person most important to him?

"Mom?" he says, and it takes a minute to realize that the shaky voice is his own.

"Ah," she says. Realization dawns on her. She smiles, the same warm, caring smile as always. "I don't have much time, Tsu-kun. When...when the other me comes back, she won't be the same. Just be honest with her. She'll come back to you."

Tsuna's mind scrambles to catch up.

"What- what do you mean?" he croaks, relief draining away in face of sheer terror. Will his mom come back changed? Will she hate him? Will she be traumatized for life?

His mom from the future just pats his cheek. "I'm going now. I love you, Tsu-kun," she says. Then, she disappears in another puff of smoke.

Tsuna...just kind of sits there uselessly as he waits for it to fade.

Nana appears in a seated position. Her eyes are blank. Her expression is empty. She looks...unharmed, at least.

"M-Mom?" Tsuna ventures to ask. Her eyes land on him, but they seem to look just past him.

She stands. He scrambles to follow her lead.

"Mom?" he tries again. Nana pats him on the head, but unlike just six minutes ago, this feels impersonal. It feels wrong.

"Mama's going to go sit, Tsu-kun," she says distantly. And she turns. Wobbling a little with each step, she walks past the shocked Hayato and the silent Reborn. Tsuna tries to think past the sounds of his Others having breakdowns, throwing themselves into hysterical fits; he tries to think past the white noise in his mind.

"Tsuna?"

Tsuna turns dazed, lost eyes to Hayato, who looks just as confused but with a determination to help. The problem is, Tsuna doesn't know how to help, and his sources of solutions aren't offering anything either. And - and Tsuna wants to think of something, _anything_ , to salvage the situation, but the same thought keeps running through his mind.

 _What if there's nothing to salvage? What if this is the final straw?_

… _what if his mother never recovers?_

…

* * *

 _Interlude: Nana_

Nana Sawada is not smart. She is not cunning, sly, or duplicitous in any sense of the words. This she knows.

But she is a mother, and she likes to think that she is at least an okay one, though by who's standards that's measured by she doesn't know, because every parent worth their salt _knows_ that they don't know what they're doing with their children. Regardless, because she is a mother, she knows that her Tsuna is a bit more special than other children.

Iemitsu thinks her unobservant, and she is, but not when it comes to family. She'd have to be positively _blind_ to not notice that Reborn isn't a normal child at all. Or that Hayato, sweet boy, always carries dynamite with him. And these people surround Tsuna, who is arguably the most unusual out of all of them. And before today, she could never quite put her finger on why her Tsuna is so different.

But now, after her trip to...the future, she finally knows. The pieces all fall into place.

Her son will be a mafia boss, and one who inherited it from someone he isn't even related to. And Iemitsu… She doesn't know where to start with that. Everything makes sense.

(Did Iemitsu ever love her? Or was she just convenient for _his_ happy ending? Someone to be there for him when he finally decides to retire.)

But Nana, Nana is _done_ withnot being able to protect her son. She couldn't help him with his bullies because the principal wouldn't listen to a single mother, she couldn't help him with his studies because she barely scraped through college herself, but she _can_ help him with this- this obligation forced on him by his father. And if she has to kick out Iemitsu and Reborn, and all of them, to keep her Tsuna happy, then she _will._

Nana is many things, oblivious and dull, but she loves her son more than anything in the world; she won't be a failure as a mother too.

…

* * *

 _Tsuna:_

"-wada. Sawada. Sawada!"

Tsuna snaps back to attention to find Hana Kurokawa staring at him.

"Um," he says.

"Have you been listening to a word I've said for the past half hour?" she asks. First of all, it's been that long? Second of all, who talks for a solid half hour before noticing that the person they're talking to isn't listening?

But, in the interest of self-preservation, he says none of this. "...no," he says, deciding that honesty is the best policy. He tries not to cringe too much at the ear-melting lecture that is about to follow.

Hana surprises him by leaning back and studying him. "What's going on with you?" she asks. "You've been more out of it than usual for the past two days."

Tsuna blinks slowly at her. Has it been two days? He guesses that since today is Thursday, and the...thing with his mom happened on Tuesday, then yes, it has been two days. Well. Time flies when on the verge of a break down, it seems.

"I-a lot of things," he says honestly. She raises an unimpressed eyebrow. "It's complicated," he adds. She doesn't back off. In fact, she leans forward.

"Listen, it's none of my business, but you're making Kyoko concerned. Hell, Hibari has been _hovering_ for the last two days, which, I gotta tell you, is pretty nerve-wracking for everyone who isn't off in their own world. It's why I got stuck with you as a partner for the project due next Monday; no one else wanted to risk pissing him off. So. Either solve your problem, vent a little, or get your act together and _stop with the pity party_ ," she says sharply. For a minute, he wants to snap at her, that she has no idea, that she can't possibly _understand_ -

Except.

Except, she's right. Because he never tells anyone anything, and psychology one-o-one dictates that things that are bottled up are bound to spill over eventually. Well, here it is, exploding all over his life, affecting everything from his school work to his social relationships.

"You're right," he says. She blinks at him. She clearly didn't expect him to give in, but he likes to think that he's good at recognizing when he's in the wrong. "I-" he sighs and rubs a hand through his hair, which is...greasy and gross. He's been letting himself go out of stress over his mother. "Listen, come over to my house after school. I'll explain everything."

Her eyebrow raises from where it had lowered. "Everything?" she asks skeptically.

" _Everything_ ," he promises.

…

* * *

The doorbell rings.

"I got it!" he calls to his mom. She hums an acknowledgement and doesn't look up from her book. She's been reading a lot. He thinks it might be a coping mechanism, but for what he doesn't know.

Hana and Hayato are waiting when he opens the door. One brightens immediately, and the other shakes her head and pushes in.

"Please, come in," he says belatedly. He guides them to his room.

"Who is it, Tsu-kun?" Nana asks.

"Just some friends," he tells her. "You can go back to reading."

She nods and doesn't question it (she used to be so _happy_ to meet his friends, but now…). He pushes away the pang to his heart and follows his friends up. When he arrives, Hana has made herself at home and is sitting on his bed, Hayato is openly scowling in disapproval at her, and Takeshi is where he was when Tsuna left: in a chess match against Reborn. Everyone looks up when he enters.

"You going to tell us?" Hana asks without preamble. Hayato's scowl deepens, but before they can get into an argument, Tsuna nods.

"Okay," he says, and he breathes. His Others offer silent reassurance, which helps to bolster his courage. "Okay, so you all know how I tend to space out, right?"

All of them nod. He sees Reborn straighten slightly, which would be amusing at any other time, because he knows that this has been driving Reborn crazy.

"So, you also all know the split personality disorder, right? Well, I kind of have something like that. Except, they're actual people who are in my head. Versions of me, actually, who come from alternate universes and who somehow end up with me after they die. Usually, I think, because they have something they regret enough to come back," he says. He doesn't pause to wince at the sheer incredulity on Hana's face and the sudden blankness on Reborn's. It sounds ludicrous. He wouldn't believe himself. "They come at different times. I have over a dozen right now. I call them my Others, but, um, they all have different nicknames. I gained my first one when I was five-"

"You're telling me that you've been getting extra presences in your mind for the past eight years?" Hana interrupts, which makes Hayato shoot her a murderous glare. She ignores this as she stares hard at Tsuna, who gulps.

"Yes," he says. She huffs.

"No wonder you're so messed up," she mutters.

"You-" Hayato starts furiously. Tsuna waves him back.

"You believe me?" he asks, hope rising and catching somewhere in his throat.

There's that eyebrow again. "Yeah. It makes sense if you think about it. I mean, I don't know many children under the age of ten who can write in three different languages," she says. He blushes a little.

"You saw that?" he says sheepishly.

"You aren't nearly as subtle as you think you are," she tells him. "Besides, it explains why you exhibit all of the signs of having PTSD even though you haven't been in any traumatic situations." She shrugs when he continues to stare at her. "It's common sense."

"Yeah, common sense," he echoes. God bless Hana Kurokawa for being so...well, sensible. He glances at Hayato, who immediately understands his unsaid question.

"Of course I believe you, Tsuna-kun," he reassures. "It's not even the weirdest thing I've heard of happening, believe it or not." He casts a suspicious glance at Takeshi. "What say you, Baseball-freak?"

"I already knew," Takeshi says breezily, much to Tsuna's despair, because that makes Hayato look like he's two seconds away from blowing a gasket or having an aneurysm.

"He was here when a new Other arrived. I...kind of freaked him out, so," Tsuna says awkwardly.

"That was fun," Takeshi says cheerfully. Tsuna _swears_ that Takeshi is the biggest troll in the history of _ever_ , because even Reborn seems to be questioning his sanity at the moment. Speaking of Reborn…

Tsuna takes a quick peek at his tutor. It really all comes down to whether Reborn believes him. All of his cards are on the table now; Tsuna doesn't know what he'll do if Reborn calls him a liar, or worse, threatens him for the truth-

"Alright, Tsunayoshi," Reborn says finally. And Tsuna-

Tsuna slumps in relief. The usage of his whole name is, he knows, Reborn's way of saying that he accepts without him actually saying it.

"I don't understand, though, why you were so bad these past few days," Hana says. "You aren't usually so out of it, even if you are a space case."

Tsuna winces at the reminder. "Um, my mom had an...accident. My Others- it didn't happen in their worlds. So, I was caught by surprise," he says. Hana frowns a little.

"Have you...been taking what they've showed you, or told you, whatever, with a grain of salt?" she asks slowly.

"What do you mean?" he says, surprised.

"I _mean_ that what has happened in their worlds won't necessarily happen in yours, and vice versa, so how seriously are you taking their advice on future events? If circumstances are different between the worlds, things may turn out differently." She sighs at their expressions of shock and, in his case, slight befuddlement. "Obviously this hasn't occurred to you, _somehow._ Look, let's say that Event A plus Event B equals Event C in one world. Well, if your world doesn't have Event A, then Event C will never come to exist. Instead, you'll get a whole different event, or you won't get any event at all. Get it?"

"Yes…" Tsuna says slowly. "But I've had a lot of consistencies between my world and theirs."

Her eyebrow raises. "Have you really?"

He pauses and considers. He thinks about all of their circumstances, the events he's lived through so far, and the people he's met. And, well, except for the actual _people_ , a lot of variables are different between all of the universes. Hell, just having his Others period makes this world far and away from the others.

"I...feel like an idiot," he says. How has he never considered this before? It seems obvious, now that he thinks about it.

"Don't," Hana snorts derisively. "It's not your fault you've got ghosts taking up space in your brain."

Ghosts seem inaccurate. Then again, they are technically all dead.

Wait.

Does this mean he's being haunted and/or possessed? Once again, how hasn't this occurred to him yet? His life is so bizarre if he's wondering why possession isn't a conclusion he reached years ago.

"Explain further. You have knowledge of the future of these alternate universes, and yet you seem surprised at times?" Reborn interjects.

Tsuna scratches his head and tries to think about how to condense it all down. "Well," he starts.

The window explodes as a small, dark shape bursts into the room.

Tsuna sighs as the presence registers. What is it with children and terrible timing? Maybe that's just Lambo, though.

"Die, Reborn!" the boy screams, pulling out his bazooka and-

 _Nope_.

Tsuna reaches and snatches the thing away before Lambo can send anyone else to the future. He is _not_ dealing with this twice, thank you very much. Then, he watches as Reborn punts the kid back out the broken window - he'll be paying for _that_ later - and…

And right through the wall of a neighboring house.

Just.

 _Why_?

Tsuna scrapes his hands down his face, makes a noise that's halfway between a moan, a groan, and a growl - yes that's three, but math is _unimportant_ when faced with possible damage charges - and he bolts out of his room, takes the stairs by three as he charges down, shouts an alert to his mom, shoves on his shoes, and throws open the door.

He's at the front door when it opens and out comes Lambo and...a boy with red hair and glasses who's holding a box. Just a simple, cardboard box, from the Bovino family.

 _Lambo's_ family.

"Are you-" the boy starts.

"Yup," Tsuna agrees, picking Lambo up before he can destroy any more houses. "Very sorry for the mess. Um, I'll compensate you?"

"No, I meant- this package. I think it's for you," the other boy says. He pushes the package towards Tsuna, who takes one look inside, blanches and takes it immediately.

Of _course_ Lambo's family would send a bazooka and a grenade to a total stranger.

Tsuna digs out the money he sees and hands it to the boy. "Here, for your trouble and the damages." He pauses. "My name is Tsuna Sawada."

"Oh." The redhead adjusts his glasses. "My name is Irie Shōichi, nice to-"

Irie continues, but Tsuna doesn't hear it over the enormous _roar_ of noise in his head.

Tsuna stumbles backwards, disoriented as his Others all start making themselves heard about _something._ And that's not even the worst part. They're reacting to this person, Irie whatever-his-name is, and they're _fighting_ about him.

" _What- one at a time!"_ Tsuna yells at them. They don't comply. If anything, they grow louder, desperate for him to listen, to obey, to do whatever it is that they're telling him to do.

Tsuna doesn't register himself falling to his knees. He doesn't hear Irie's alarmed shouts, and he doesn't feel Lambo shaking him. He doesn't notice when blood starts to drip down his nose. He's too busy being crowded in his own mind, frightened of his Others for the very first time since he was five.

They press in, frantic, roiling with fear, anger, and frustration. They mentally grapple with each other, peacemakers like QT and Yoshi ojii-san overwhelmed by others with hot heads or vengeful hearts. They pressure him to act one way or another, tearing at his mind as they fight amongst each other for the right course of action, and he doesn't _understand_ -

Tsunayoshi Sawada collapses in the middle of the afternoon at a complete stranger's house for no apparent reason. The doctors later deem that he had a seizure.

He doesn't wake up for three days.

…

Tsuna is alone, and he's scared. His Others are silent, imposing presences, and right now…

Right now, he's trapped in his own mind, surrounded by memories of the past and nightmares for the future. And he can't.

Get.

Out.

…

* * *

 _Someone help me._

* * *

 **(1): We're going to see some lasting guilt over all of the deception Tsuna has pulled over the last few years. He understands the need for it, but he dislikes it all the same.**

* * *

 **Guest Reviews (Bottom to Top):**

 **Snowyh20:** **Hello. Yes, I think it took an unacceptable number of months for an update? And it happened again? Sincere apologies. Anyway, Takeshi knows, and yes, having someone to share the burden definitely decreases Tsuna's stress levels a little bit. Thankfully. Lambo bullying Tsuna was always something that bothered me in the original manga. I mean, the kid was eight years younger and Tsuna was letting him push him around. So, Tsuna has a backbone. Mostly because he's too tired to deal with anything Lambo throws his way, so he just doesn't care about humoring the kid anymore. He definitely isn't a saint, and his patience is tightly wound and tends to snap when he's exhausted or suffering from a recent PTSD attack.**

 **I really appreciate your kind and very supportive review. Sorry it took so long; I just kind of lost my muse and then…didn't update. I'm glad you think Tsuna the First is realistic, and I hope to see you soon. I hope you enjoyed this last update!**

 **Janee:** **Hello; I'm so glad that you found my story! Thank you for the kind review, and I hope that the Others delivered on excitement increase with this chapter. Poor Tsuna never catches a break. Sorry for the wait; I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

 **Guest:** **Glad you like the story! Hopefully I will continue to deliver; thank you for the review!**

 **Guest:** **Yeah, that rule applies to after, like, sixteen, I think. Interesting fact, though. Thank you for the review!**

* * *

 **A/N: I was thinking, after I've gone through all of the Others being introduced, that I could do an Interlude chapter that goes deeper into the former lives and personalities of Tsuna's Others. What do you think? Would you like to read that?**

 **A/N 2: And so we see the first (chronological) Other that has some control issues with anger. That inability, or rather, hardship with controlling anger will feature in some of Tsuna's past scenes. In other news, Others taking over Tsuna's body? Not planned, I'll tell you now. But if the scene fits…**

 **A/N 3: As you can see, this is an important chapter. I had a hard time with it because Irie contributes a lot to the Future Arc and beyond, but I feel like some people would view the Future Arc as his fault. Future Gokudera even told Tsuna to kill him. So. I thought the Others might have conflicting ideas about what to do with him. I don't know when I'll update next, but it's nice to finally get this out after months of dithering over how to end it. Sorry for the wait, thank you for your patience. Enjoy waiting for a resolution to this unexpected cliffhanger ;). Until next time!**

* * *

 **PLEASE READ, I AM IN NEED OF HELP! HELP THIS POOR WOMAN!**

 **I'm looking for a beta! Just some help to bounce ideas off of and overall quality checks - misspells, plot points, character actions and such. I don't want to have to rewrite this like I did my other story, because quite frankly it's a pain in the ass. So. This is my solution to hopefully fix some future plot and character problems. I'd look at the Beta section on the website, but there are a** _ **lot**_ **of people on there, and I don't have the time or patience to skim through them all. I do have some requirements for being my Beta, but I don't think they're unreasonable.**

 **1: You must either speak English as a first language, or you better be damn good at using it as a second/third language.**

 **2: You must be familiar with the fandom and preferably my story. It wouldn't be a lot of help to ask for plot ideas from someone who hasn't read the manga/watched the anime. As for my story, well, I'd rather you be familiar with my writing style/author personality.**

 **3: I don't really have strict deadlines, but I'd like it if you were done your beta work within seven days after I get it to you.**

 **4: You will be reading ahead. Please, for the love of God, don't share spoilers or plot details that I've been thinking about with other people.**

 **5: I'll run some trials with different beta volunteers to see who best fits what I need. I might take one person for one chapter, and another for a different chapter, and then choose between the two. Please don't be offended if I don't choose you. It's not personal - I'm just trying to find the best fit for** _ **me**_ **.**

 **6: Finally, this is a hobby and I treat it as such. I love constructive criticism because it helps me grow, but if you start harshly putting down my story without good reason, I'm going to cut you loose and then block you from my PM.**

 **Anyone who's interested, please PM me. Please don't answer in a review unless you're adding a comment/criticism/compliment as well.**


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